Pregnancy and birth
Once a Karen woman becomes pregnant she must take extra special care and caution in everything she does to ensure the safe delivery of a healthy baby. A healthy diet is an essential part of this. Pregnant Karen women shouldn't eat any odd foods (ones outside their normal diet) or eat food produced by vendors. The Karen believe that drinking alcohol during pregnancy will cause a miscarriage, and eating jackfruit will cause the baby to be born with skin disease. Women are forbidden from going to funerals during their pregnancy because the spirit of the deceased can easily return to the world by entering through the bodies of villagers. If a pregnant woman sees a dead person or feels she has been possessed by a spirit, a ceremony to call her spirit back to her body must be performed immediately. In general all of the members of a village will help out the pregnant woman to make sure she stays out of harm's way. The list of things to avoid is quite extensive and even includes stepping over a tree that has fallen across a road or path. Pregnant women must be sure either walk around the tree or discontinue their journey as it is believed stepping over the tree will make delivery of the baby very difficult. If she does step over the tree she will have to ease the disturbance created with the sacrifice of one chicken.
Care and preventative medicine for pregnant Karen women
Methods for caring for pregnant women have been passed down from generation to generation, just as with every other tribe. Care begins from the moment of inception and runs until old age. Both mother and father have responsibilities to attend to in caring for their child. Below is a list of some of these:
Prohibitions for pregnant women:
Responsibilities for the father; He should watch his emotions as well, making sure to keep himself uplifted, his spirit and mind clean at all times. He should provide good, appropriate food for his wife.
37 beings with souls according to Karen belief
Note: Similar to the astrological calendar, depending on when
one is born, one will fall into one of these 37 categories and one's
nature and disposition will be determined in part by the influence of
these beings. There is an ancient Karen tradition of black magic and the
souls of these 37 beings are called upon by practitioners to perform
their wishes.
The present situation
As progress and development reaches the more remote rural areas, more and more people are ceasing to believe in the old ways and customs. The preference, these days, is for deliveries to be done in the hospital. This is because they have found it to be easier, more convenient, and there are fewer complications than in the past. The more technology reaches these people and the methods in the hospitals improve, the more the Karen are eager to have their babies at the hospita
http://akha.hilltribe.org
Once a Karen woman becomes pregnant she must take extra special care and caution in everything she does to ensure the safe delivery of a healthy baby. A healthy diet is an essential part of this. Pregnant Karen women shouldn't eat any odd foods (ones outside their normal diet) or eat food produced by vendors. The Karen believe that drinking alcohol during pregnancy will cause a miscarriage, and eating jackfruit will cause the baby to be born with skin disease. Women are forbidden from going to funerals during their pregnancy because the spirit of the deceased can easily return to the world by entering through the bodies of villagers. If a pregnant woman sees a dead person or feels she has been possessed by a spirit, a ceremony to call her spirit back to her body must be performed immediately. In general all of the members of a village will help out the pregnant woman to make sure she stays out of harm's way. The list of things to avoid is quite extensive and even includes stepping over a tree that has fallen across a road or path. Pregnant women must be sure either walk around the tree or discontinue their journey as it is believed stepping over the tree will make delivery of the baby very difficult. If she does step over the tree she will have to ease the disturbance created with the sacrifice of one chicken.
Care and preventative medicine for pregnant Karen women
Methods for caring for pregnant women have been passed down from generation to generation, just as with every other tribe. Care begins from the moment of inception and runs until old age. Both mother and father have responsibilities to attend to in caring for their child. Below is a list of some of these:
Prohibitions for pregnant women:
- Do not eat wasp larvae
- Do not eat any food that has a sticky sap (like tarot or jackfruit)
- Do not eat any animal killed by a tiger or any wild pigs
- Do not sleep too much or work too hard
Responsibilities for the father; He should watch his emotions as well, making sure to keep himself uplifted, his spirit and mind clean at all times. He should provide good, appropriate food for his wife.
| Delivery Usually, Karen women deliver their babies at home under the care and surveillance of their husband, their mother, and close relatives. When delivering the baby, the woman will sit on the floor with her knees up. A cloth will be strapped to the crossbeam for the roof and hung down for the woman to grasp onto and tug when trying to gather the strength to push. Those attending to the woman will help massage her stomach, gently pushing the baby out of the womb. Once the baby has been delivered, the umbilical cord will be cut using a small sliver of bamboo bark. The umbilical cord will be wrapped in a cloth and stuffed inside a bamboo shaft, which will be given to the father to take out and hang from a tree in the forest. The name for this tree is "bpa day bpaw." This is a special tree which is used for keeping the spirits of children. Cutting down this tree is strictly forbidden because it will cause the child to become sick and maybe even die. In the event someone does cut down this tree, a ceremony must be performed to call the spirit of the child back to its body. After a time the umbilical cord and afterbirth which have been stored in the bamboo shaft, may fall from the tree or it may be removed by the parents. Once removed it will be taken to a new location and buried. Karen women are afraid of the delivery process. They are afraid they will have a difficult or complicated delivery, or, even worse, the baby may die. It is common knowledge amongst Karen women that there is a high incidence of mortality during delivery. Thus, whenever any odd or unusual event befalls the family they are likely to call for the local midwife to come and determine the cause of the aberration. If it turns out the event was caused by a spirit then a ceremony must quickly be performed to pay homage and respect. |
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| Post-delivery After delivery, the mother must remain around the home for at least three days. During this time she will sit in front of a fire keeping warm. When sleeping she must be careful to only sleep on her side as the Karen believe that it's possible for blood to rush to the brain, killing the woman. To keep warm, some women will take a hot stone from the fire, wrap it in cloth and hold it to their stomach. The only food which can be eaten during this time is either plain rice or boiled rice soup and water. Following the delivery a ceremony will be performed to receive the spirits of both the mother and her child. An expert must be tracked down to perform this ceremony. He will pray and pour holy water all over the woman's body, after which the husband will perform the ceremony to call to the spirit of his wife and child. The day after delivery the mother will begin feeding her baby some rice as part of another ceremony. She will chew rice mixed with salt and water until it is very fine and mooshy and then hand-feed it to her baby. When the remaining section of the baby's umbilical cord has shriveled up and fallen off it is a signal that it is time to tie bracelets made with pebbles around the baby's wrists and neck. This is done to bless the child, asking the baby to be strong and grow quickly. The baby will not be given a name until it is a month old. During the official ceremony the mother and father will once again tie strings around the baby's wrists along with piercing its ears to show that this is a human and not an ape. They will then announce to all present, "at this time I (the baby) am now a human being!" If, a few days after the delivery, the baby falls ill, the mother and father will take it to the place where they buried the umbilical cord and afterbirth and call its spirit back to its body. If the baby grows ill after two weeks of being born, then a chicken must be sacrificed and offered to the spirits to buy the child's spirit back from them. Upon arrival back at home, before going in the couple will first knock on their front stairs and then race into the house to check and make sure that the baby's spirit has indeed been returned to it. |
| 1. Soul of the heart | 10. Soul of skink (lizard) | 19. Soul of wild chicken | 28. Soul of porcupine |
| 2. Soul of the left hand | 11. Soul of cricket | 20. Soul of barking deer | 29. Soul of mountain goat |
| 3. Soul of the right hand | 12. Soul of grasshopper | 21. Soul of deer | 30. Soul of bison |
| 4.Soul of the left foot | 13. Soul of gecko | 22. Soul of lion | 31. Soul of rhinocerus |
| 5. Soul of the right foot | 14. Soul of spider | 23. Soul of tiger | 32. Soul of turtle |
| 6. Soul of clam | 15. Soul of bird | 24. Soul of bird | 33. Soul of monitor lizard |
| 7. Soul of crab | 16. Soul of rat | 25. Soul of rice | 34. Soul of shrimp |
| 8. Soul of fish | 17. Soul of gibbon | 26. Soul of snake | 35. Soul of E-hen (wild dog) |
| 9. Soul of toad | 18. Soul of wild pig | 27. Soul of mole rat | 36. Soul of wasp |
| 37. Soul of Gaek bird |
The present situation
As progress and development reaches the more remote rural areas, more and more people are ceasing to believe in the old ways and customs. The preference, these days, is for deliveries to be done in the hospital. This is because they have found it to be easier, more convenient, and there are fewer complications than in the past. The more technology reaches these people and the methods in the hospitals improve, the more the Karen are eager to have their babies at the hospita
http://akha.hilltribe.org
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