Birth on Naremma island

Tell us about a tradition surrounding births in one of your worlds
When a person gets pregnant on the Naremma island, a few precautions immediately take place. During the whole pregnancy, the person is not allowed to eat meat or fish or anything that involves killing an animal. It it believed to kill the child in the womb. Protective amulets are worn around the neck in long chains so they hang over the belly and protect the unborn baby. The person who is pregnant will only wear green, white and blue clothes, which are associated with health, water and cleanliness.
When giving birth, it is important to have light, children who are born in darkness are believed to be blind because they do not see light when they first open their eyes, so it is believed they will then live in eternal darkness. All the bedlinens with blood stains along with the placenta, are buried in a special wooden box made for this purpose. The burial of this box has to be done by an experienced magician or a healer, and then it has to be blessed, and a tree will be planted on top. This tree is the child's life tree, and as long as it flourishes, the child is safe. A life tree cannot be chopped down, but with appropriate spells and sacrifices, branches can be taken to make toys and stuff for the child. As the child grows, the tree will grow with them, and when they are old and die, they will be buried under the tree again.
It is considered important for the child to be as close to the mother as possible for the first 6 months. They are not supposed to eat meat or fish for as long as they are breastfeeding, which usually is at least for a year. Once they child is 9 months old, it will get an official name in a naming ritual, and thus be considered a proper person and a member of the family. 
While is it considered lucky to have children, and to get pregnant soon again after giving birth to one child, it is also believed, that too many children will drain too much of the mother's life power, and it's very unlucky to have more than 7 children. The naryas do believe, the younger the better to have children, so the parent has as much life power left as possible, and it is quite common for girls as young as 16-17 to get married and have 6-7 kids in a row with only a maximum of 2 years in between pregnancies. However they should not marry and have children sooner than 2 years after their periods start.

Components and tools

The birthing mother will get some herbs for the pain and the bleeding. Cleansing herbs will be burned in the room as well. Water is essential to clean up all the blood as soon as possible, and to keep the mother clean. The baby is also cleaned with warm water and cloth before being dressed in white clothes and given to the mother to nurse.

Participants

With the mother in the birthing room there will be a magician or a healer to collect everything with blood to be buried and they will also bury the items in a sacred grove. There normally is the mother's mother or other older relative in the rooms as well. People younger than the mother are never allowed to be in the room.

Primary Related Location

Naremma island

Related Ethnicities

• narya