| The birth of a person has been considered important in most cultures over history and a variety of rituals are based around the birth of a person, such as the Christening of new-born children in many Christian denominations and the act of circumcision. However, some cultures take the opposite view and worry about the implications of a child or see a woman’s pregnancy as impure or polluting.
The rites of passage in pregnancy can be separated into three key stages. The preliminal stage or rite of separation involves the mother entering pregnancy, during which time the women may be cared for and protected. The liminal phase is the rite of transition, or labour, during which women in some cultures are isolated, considered sacred and required to position themselves in certain ways. The final rite of aggregation is the post-liminal stage of several days during which the sacred status of the parent ends. |