Childbirth in Peasant Russia
Rural Mothers Often Gave Birth without Professional Medicine
Jul 18, 2008
Childbirth in rural Russian villages at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th was often unassisted and dangerous. Midwives or village grandmothers may have offered the only help, using traditional rituals to help with the birth.
Work and Childbirth
Women in rural Russia had little opportunity for maternity leave. Fields had to be worked, cows had to be milked, children had to be cared for. Childbirth might occur in the field if the woman could not get home or to a birthing facility in time. Typically, a woman was back to work after three days of rest when she gave birth. She might take the child to the field with her to nurse, or she might leave the newborn at home to be watched by an older sibling.
Midwife or Village Grandmother
The village midwife or grandmother used traditional methods to aid the mother during and after labor. She would know what incantations to recite, know what to do if there was a problem with the birth, and wash the newborn baby. This position was not usually a paid one, but midwives were given gifts in exchange for their services.
Birthing Positions
Women might be forced to use what we now consider non-traditional birthing positions, especially if they were giving birth without assistance. A common position that was believed to help with a difficult birth was hanging from the rafters of a barn; the woman would loop rope through the rafters and put her arms through the hoops. Gravity would then encourage the delivery of the child.
Other birthing positions included standing and walking positions. Most women in labor were at the mercy of their midwives and had to obey their instructions, no matter how difficult they might find them to carry out.
Opinion of Professional Medical Assistance
Mothers in rural Russian villages often did not appreciate the skills of medical professionals at hospitals and clinics. They felt that the village grandmothers, who had decades of experience in traditional birthing rights, were both more sympathetic and more knowledgeable. While medical professionals might try to keep mothers in the hospital for an extended period, village midwives understood that work, children, and livestock had to be attended to as soon as possible. In addition, belief in and folk medicine brought comfort to birthing mothers when village midwives conducted rituals in the same manner that had served the mother's mother and grandmother.
References
Ransel, David L. Village Mothers: Three Generations of Change in Russia and Tartaria. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000.
Semyonovova Tian-Shanskaia, Olga. Village Life in Late Tsarist Russia, ed. David L. Ransel, trans. David L. Ransel and Micahel Levine. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993.
