The Preservation of National Childbirth Traditions in the Russian Homebirth Community

Abstract

In Russia labor and birth were transferred from home to hospital shortly after the 1917 Revolution. A set of measures intended to promote state hospitals and reduce the authority of traditional birth attendants and healers was introduced. As a result, birth in hospitals became the norm, and the tradition of home midwifery was interrupted.(2) As the setting of birth changed, the ritual practices and physical treatments of homebirth were forgotten. Though hospital maternity practices preserved the essential archetypal structure of birth as a rite of passage [Belousova 2001], the traditional actions associated with birth disappeared. The practical experience of traditional midwifery was neglected and it was not integrated into the new tradition. Another reason for these events was general change in the perception of the laws ruling the world, of human nature and, as a consequence, the organization of the human body. The Soviet authorities heavily promoted a positivist and materialist manner of thinking. The new mentality was secular, with atheism promoted by the Communists in mass media, school and workplace. The destruction of churches and severe repression of the clergy were part of the war against any perceived threat to materialist thinking. In fact, Russian popular faith presented a complex phenomenon, a mix of Russian Orthodox and pagan elements. People often considered pagan rituals and beliefs as Christian and experienced difficulty in differentiating one from the other. State ideology decried pagan customs as superstition and those who practiced them were persecuted. The private life of Soviet citizens was generally scorned and ignored. The limits of the family were far from hermetic; the Communist Party had the right to regulate the life of the family, approve marriages and divorce proceedings, discuss cases of adultery in public and recommend models for the proper organization of family life. Childbirth, too, was treated as a public event, given that it related to the appearance and upbringing of a new citizen, who was expected to perform certain functions within the social system. Maternity leave was brief and within two months babies were sent to baby-care units to be reared in accordance with the principles of a communist upbringing. Positivist thinking became dominant in medicine as well. The psychic and spiritual dimensions of illness were rejected; only the body was treated. Consequently, biomedical