A sorcerer helped me find the perfect place to give birth to my son, unfortunately things happened sooner than possible and we had to settle for the backseat of a Buick.
I mean I've heard it's been scientifically proven that squatting while giving birth is actually safer and easier for the mother than lying down because gravity so there is that at least.
It's not surprising that loads of women claim the labor and birth was much less stressful and painful doing it at home than their hospital births. People these days will do anything if their doctor says to.
So I actually attended the birth of my 4 siblings, and all of them were pretty much delivered either squatting or on her hands and knees and took under 6 hours (the last was only 2hrs). I, however, apparently took 18 hours and I was delivered with my mother on her back with her legs up in stirrups. Guess who has two thumbs, a uterus, and is not having kids? (it is, in fact, me)
Most elite moms in my country never endure any painful, lengthy natural child delivery. At least 95% of my friends had cesarean section done in private hospitals. Just pay, no push. Some also had Buddhist monks pick the most auspicious day and time for doctors to start the operation so to guarantee the best lives for their kids. No joking.
@Tanyani Vorapongvijit that kind of makes sense in some ways if you can afford it (although there are downsides of course) but most western women are probably too vain to want the scar unless they have to...maybe not most but many.
A lot of cultures used to encourage women to stand or squat, rather than lay down during birth. The way human female pelvises are shaped/position it's easier to deliver a baby upright, rather than laying on your back
Dude i love that Japanese people and ancient mexicas had the same idea “battlefields and birthings are of the same nature” in ancient Mexico a midwife would treat a woman giving birth as a warrior. Because both war and birthing were honorable tasks that brushed with death and so they used the same blessings for both warriors and mothers!
A lot of cultures treated birth and battlefields the same, in Sparta only women who died in childbirth and warriors who died in battle were given the honour of an inscribed grave.
Chinese orphanages have kids tied into wooden create things and rooms where babies get left until they die . Look up abused Chinese orphans tied up in goggle image's
As someone who is currently 19 weeks pregnant in the 21st century, I'm very grateful all I have to worry about is if I want an epidural or not. I don't think I could handle also worrying about lucky directions. I still get my left & right mixed up sometimes lol
@@rehoboth_farm Lol thanks! It's definitely been an interesting time regardless! Navigating through this new chapter considering *gestures broadly* everything going on
@@sinnie3801 You hang in there. Take plenty of vitamin D, Omega 3, and a good iodine supplement along with your mommie vitamins. You know that you can raise your bebe's IQ by up to 15 points that way. Healthy, happy, and a super genius, that's what you're going for right? LOL! You take care.
I asked my mother if she would have wanted this kind of audience at my birth, after watching the video she laid some wisdom on me. She said that the balance of souls would have been very different with a crowd because there would have been two births and at least 6 murders if people were peeping at her giving birth shouting orders and prayers and trying to get her to stand up and hold onto a rope.
@@animeloveer97 They also have them pretty much anywhere now. I was lying down and it worked like a charm though. I didn't have the energy to do all the exercise stuff they had lying around.
Imagine trying to give birth with people yelling at full volume while beating a drum, others throwing around pots, enough incense burning to punch a hole through the ozone layer, a crowd of people doing _nothing_ but staring at you, and knowing that all of this is your father's fault. I wonder why she was having trouble giving birth in such a wonderful environment 🤔 Jokes aside, I would have loved to seen this. I can't begin to imagine how funny that shitshow would be live
This would be the norm in premodern civilizations around the world when fear of demons & evil spirits was rampant, medical science was primitive, and mortality was high. Priests or monks would be around to chant & say prayers for a safe delivery, and charms & rituals done to ward off bad luck & bad spirits.
The rope and squat method is a verified way to give birth, as is on all fours or squating on a birthing chair, that's all still done today in birth centres and with midwives. It allows the pelvis to fully open, allows gravity to do most of the work, lessens the chance of tearing or needing assistance and allows for a shorter labour. While lying on your back can stall labour, increase infant stress, cause distocia and increase pain and tearing...this was invented or became popular because a king wanted to see his mistress give birth and didn't want to have to grovel on the floor to do so and also because it made delivery easier for doctors (not the mother).
So that weirdo wanted to see a baby come out his wife so he made her lay down on a bed??? No doubt this definitely was some sick pedo fetish shit, probably tried it multiple times before because you don't come up with this shit on your first time, modern medicine has helped us out a lot but one part where it failed almost every time was it's treatment of women, I definetly ain't gonna have my wife lay on her back while giving birth.
Funny how the birthing process has only recently become pleasant for women, you know, the people going through the process, and all throughout history we've just been shuffling through the methods that are most convenient for when men want to watch. No wonder there were so many fucking stillbirths and miscarriages. Childbirth was just another one of the things men thought belonged to *them.* It's a process entirely done by a woman's body, that she should have 100% control over, but no, can you make her lay down please so I can shove my nose a little further into her vagina? fucking christ.
Our pelvis bones still haven't really adjusted to us standing upright. It has definitely given us a disadvantage during childbirth, anyway. But yeah, squatting is the most natural for both childbirth and pooping, still. 👍🏻 If you have trouble pooping, get yourself a squatty potty. It's such a little "nothing" thing, but it can help cut down your straining, and the time it takes. You can make one yourself, too. Just make it so your knees are level or above your pelvis, when sitting on your toilet. 👍🏻👍🏻
Giving birth in the supine position became popular because you'd already be on a hospital bed, so emergency intervention would be quicker and easier if necessary.
Lots and lots of noble women have given birth in front of an audience. Usually without anything as polite as a screen. I'm told that was so they could prove it was a royal bebe amd hadn't been switched with another 🤷🏻
I think in some cultures, royalties were used to having audience in their most private times as well. (Please correct me if any of these is wrong) but when Chinese concubines visited Emperor, eunuchs were there to record everything in the room. Marie Antoinette and Louis XVII were also herded to their wedding bed and checked in the morning if there was blood on bedsheet
wow, i never knew the Fujiwara clan married their daughters into the empirical family, allowing them control of the Heian court for 200 years! thank you for mentioning these details most never talk about :D
I've popped out a few kids. If there was that much commotion while I was in labor, it wouldn't have prevented ghosts: it would have assured them. There would have been a few murders. It was bad enough that I had a nurse panicking and screaming "pant like a puppy dog" in my ear. I tried to punch her. Fun fact: in the traditional culture my family comes from, it was customary to place an ax under the birthing bed. It's supposed to be good luck. This...doesnt seem safe...for the other people.
@@ross6753 I don't know. You have a different mindset when in active labor, especially if you don't have painkillers. I remember becoming irrationally angry because a family member was smiling. That's all they did, and it infuriated me.
The only good part of giving birth during the pandemic was that only my husband was allowed there with me. No well meaning but in the way moms or nosey aunties. Just a bunch of people who knew what they were doing. And me.
I gave birth kneeling. No way was l gonna let a bunch of blokes make me lie down and push uphill just to make it convenient for THEM. Also, there's a very long tradition of important babies being born in front of trusted witnesses. Important that the baby was actually the one everyone thought it was and not a changeling.
@@edgarallanpoe209 They tried to get me to lie on my back while I was still in my room, so they could put monitors on me but it was genuinely too painful (l do have lower back problems). A fantastic midwife put the back of a chair against my bed, showed me how to straddle it and lay my head on the bed. It was the first time l had been comfortable and l actually slept off and on for a couple of hours. My waters had already broken so, l wasn't allowed the water birth that l had wanted and because l had had medical problems during pregnancy and the baby was coming 9 weeks early, l had to give birth in a theatre in case of complications. l was determined to make it as natural as l could though, and wanted to do it kneeling and with no drugs. It probably helped that l was 36 and wasn't going to take shit from anybody and possibly because l had already said l was unable to lie on my back they didn't argue. l only knelt for the last hour or so, as in, once they decided l had dilated enough and transferred me to theatre. I personally, think that kneeling did make it easier, because of the angle of the birth canal, gravity was helping not hindering. Although as l watched beads of sweat drip off the end of my nose, I did have a chuckle as to how appropriate it was that it was called labour. It absolutely fascinates me that they put women's legs in stirrups and lay them on their back cos they're effectively making them push uphill, solely for their convenience, and not even letting them brace themselves with their legs to do it.
I'm willing to bet the rope held women up so they didn't fall over but also helped to bear down on while pushing. Childbirth is such a wild thing, so much misinformation was & still is prevalent & we've kind of screwed ourselves with not doing birth in a natural position based on doctors (men) wanting to make it easiest for them to deliver the baby. Now that we know more, we've seen lots of people drift back into things like water birthing, squatting to have their babies, etc. & I think it's got to be more comfortable (I comfortable as birth can get ya know).
Birth support ropes are common around the world. (The mother holds onto the rope, she’s not tied to it.) Lying down is the worst possible way to give birth because you’re fighting gravity-it’s way better to squat, sit on a specially designed birthing chair, or even stand. Thus, ropes.
Women lie down because that is the only way you can get an epidural and give birth. Getting an epidural and having a relatively painless delivery beats squatting without an epidural.
I don't remember the details but I remember hearing about how holding onto ropes and having the squating position actually has to do with the way a woman's muscles contract during giving birth. In this manner it makes it the easiest for the woman to give birth, which may have helped reduce stress of labour.
I've given birth 5 time, with the 5th being twins. Every birth was completely different. No way would I want to give birth in someone else's home, or even without medical care. Everything can go wrong at once with no time to waste, even if pregnancy was low risk and mom has given birth without issue prior. Birth is unpredictable, and how you want to proceed, what position is best, what complications can arise and what you need can be extremely different during each and every birth. As for an audience, I'd be screaming and doing whatever it took to get them to run away. Shaving my head? Whomever had the razor would probably be too busy trying to figure out how to live newly castrated.
You would act like these women did, because our reactions are shaped by society and social rank. What you do or expect now, is supported or enabled by the world around you. If it wasn't, you wouldn't be able to do it, as these ancient women weren't. Women had no choice and very little control over their lives and bodies.
God! I wish I was in that sh*% show. I did pass a weird delivery room next to my sister's when she gave birth to her daughter. It was full of the parents relatives and they were having something very similar to a tea party to me. My sister was incredibly nervous while those people were having fun with their teacups and mini sweets and sandwiches. 😅
when he said in 2:31 "giving birth was seen as impure because of the dirty things that came out of the mother birthing blood , bodily fluids , profanities" the profanities part had me cracking 🤣🤣🤣
That sounds like a really crappy time for the woman giving birth. Makes me really glad for modern medicine. Have a happy Easter 🐣 thanks for the video 😊
@@h0zumi Japan doesn't even let you have epidural still to this day! It's not even an option! So I'm afraid to even ask... What is Afghanistan doing...
Every pregnant woman needs to know about the ghosts, and the head shaving. I died in childbirth with my head unshaved and now I am a hungry ghost. True fact!
To a noble family a daughter wasn't a bad deal either, as she could be traded away for favors and alliances. The ideal distribution of offspring would have been one surviving male son and heir, and lots and lots of daughters. Of course, they were shooting for a potential emperor there, so it would have been a _bit_ of a disappointment, but eh...you win some, you lose some.
Aside from all the audience and ghosts and monks and ghost-catcher girls and talismans and things, some of this sounds pretty similar to what modern midwifes might do to help things along.
The book "Memories of Silk and Straw" has some recollections of childbirth for peasants in the edo period, which I know is mad later than Heian but still interesting
"They had an audience." Well, that was common in a lot of countries among the social elites. And the entire reason why the whole "giving birth on the back" thing is even a thing is because of some king. That's right. Not tradition or something for the mother's health, it was because some king wanted to see the births and get his jollies. Not really surprising anyone, it's Louis XIV...
I guess Medea had her reasons when telling off Jason for being a coward, unlike her who had given birth, twice. Because all women had it bad, before hospitals were invented (now only some have it bad), but aristocrats had it bad in front of an audience. And incense. Nothing like those smokes to give you headaches.
Medea was also a BAMF in general amd Jason took advantage of her moral grayness so he would look like a hero, so not only was he a coward, he was an asshole
And then she went and took the life of the children she had given birth only because he left her. One must be brutally brave and a total misanthrope in order to kill their own kids, especially if it's the mother
Squatting whilst giving birth is the natural instinctive position to use for birth. Women only started to lay down on a bed was to make it easier for the medical attendants (men) to see how labour was progressing. Now due to medications used during labour many women aren’t able to have an active labour or get up and squat.
This is freaky! So the best way to give birth was to give the mother long term PTSD by having people screaming and breaking stuff around her while some guy shaved her head. If there is one thing I'm sure women don't want, it's for childbirth to be even more stressful.
I almost forgot who the Fujiwara clan was thanks for reminding me that they famously married their daughters into the Imperial family allowing them the control of Royal Court for more than 200 years
Am I the only one who would love to see this being played out in *anime* ... The chaos that would ensue just the ridiculousness of it ..it sounds more like a plot from anime more then it does real life Id especially love to see it in inuyasha with Madam Exorcist and the gang join in killing hundreds of demons around the birthing tent as the mother just screams and Madam Exorcist going "I can't see a thing there's no spirits here what are you guys doing ...stop jumping around like idiots this is serious"
Always been the same except more sanitary and the baby has better survival chances as times goes on. In 500 years (probably sooner), I think we'll have visual ideas of where the baby is at in the body like a 3D imaging system so we'll know what position it is in without having to guess. The people in the future will wonder about what it was like to not know what was going on with the baby at all times. Or it will be post-apocalypse stone age and every time a woman gives birth they'll talk about the legendary "Hospitals".
@@TheVioletMaze Not true. You can give birth if flipped on the left side. For some reason, it easier to give birth due to the heart can circulate the oxygen and blood easier.
Demon Slayer Manga spoilers! This actually explains Muzan's Backstory, as said in the manga the shadow of death was always near him, and his heart stopped beating a few times in his mothers womb, and having a very fragile body.
I absolutely love your humor and the way you pronounce baby😂😂😂 just you speaking is entertaining. Thank you for all your hard work creating these educating and entertaining videos. Your service is appreciated.
Ah, hey, the Fujiwara. Who famously... Anyway, the rope harness thing actually may make a degree of sense, given the position. Have you ever tried to just sit in a squatting position for a while? It doesn't work out well, your legs end up giving.
Highlights for me: “Probably in a shed somewhere filled with hungry ghosts… and poverty” “He threw a shit money at it like he was the U.S. government and his daughter’s vagina was the military industrial complex” “It was a boy! Michinawa CAME *dramatic zoom in for comedic effect* immediately….to the bebe’s side, to see his grandson” 🤣🤣🤣 I laughed AUDIBLY, thanks man!
Not a mother (yet in life), but I would definitely prefer having some ghosts hanging around during me giving birth than some not so loveable relatives who would come without even being invited in the first place.
Oh my goodness who are you and where do you come from a storyteller. You tell me a story like none other. Serious but yet funny at the same time. You are making me laugh but yet it’s interesting at the same time. I have got to listen to all of your stories. Whenever I find them. Thumbs up to you buddy
Quite a few women projectile shit while giving birth. This makes me wonder if there wasn't some sort of "splash zone" where they kept aristocrats who wanted to catch a glimpse of sleeve and not catch what the new Okami-san had for her last meal.
I mean they were squatting so they'd probably be pooping downwards or one of those attendants could kind of aim a bucket if they could see poop was incoming. But yes, that's probably why people didn't stand as close with European births
Now a days they give you an enigma of a gallon of water before birthing to make sure you get all the poop out first. And then you can't eat till you are done. I was in labor for 23 hours and I barely had the energy to push the baby out by the end. Laying on my back and working against gravity was awful. I passed out twice from the pain. I wish I was squatting.
@TheVioletMaze Pick a word. 😂☮️ Enigma: something hard to understand or explain Enema:. the injection of liquid into the rectum and colon by way of the anus
@@TheVioletMaze That might just be your doctor/hospital being bad. You're the first one I've heard of that had to do that and I've heard of plenty of younger women who pooped or peed during delivery
@@TheVioletMaze I must agree with @merchantfan, that sounds like a corrupt hospital system, I have never heard of women going through that specifically.
I have an extensive family tree which has been documented for several hundred years. My great great great grandmother lived during the Edo period under Tokugawa Iemochi and Yoshinobu. We have a letter which describes when she gave birth to her daughter and some of what is presented in your video is recorded in this written account.
As someone who's given birth, it is infact icky😂 my first shower a few days later was the best shower of my life lol. I wasn't allowed to shower because I still had to have IVs and be monitored because I'm anemic
Making it a spectacle sounds like European royalty. I get that they want to prove that the baby came out of her, but JESUS!!! Also, I’d be wicked upset if I came out of delivery with a shaved head. The person shaving my head better watch out if I make it, js Also, I want to hear about Japanese battlefields! You said they pay special attention to the border of life and death, like a battlefield, and now I’m curious. Did they do rituals there too?
When I heard: "The Fujiwara clan famously married their daughters into the Imperial family, allowing them control into the Heian court for 200 years." It was like seeing my dad come home with the milk.
This is the first video of yours I have watched, and I gotta say dude, that segway to your ad read was amazing! One of the best I've heard in awhile. It's something that can be easily overlooked but I noticed it and thought I'd say something 😁 I'll go finish the video now!
Someday someone's going to look back on our way of doing things, women being terrified of giving birth, laying in the most ineffective position, 30-50% being born by c-section, no regard for spirituality or sacredness just treating labour as medical, even the act of going to a hospital where pathogens run rampant vs an institution only dealing with birth, and they will think it's as strange as having the Ghostbusters attend your birth
I agree! In the future we'll have pregnancy exercises like safe squats to make our body ready. Our health watches will tell when the time is nearing, and we'll prepare a nice quiet comfortable room in the hospital's birth section, with our favourite things, where we'll stay a week with our partner or friend. Our midwife, who has accompanied us for the whole pregnancy, will practice the positions for pain management. As birth comes nearer, we have our favorite music, and can even have a last stroll in the birthing park. After some time in the room or in a bath, we enter a birthing trance, induced by the songs and sounds of our birth helpers. We choose the best positions and movements, helping the baby to turn and twist in the best possible way to get out. We spend one or two more weeks in our room, learning to care for the baby, helped and monitored, someone else cooks and cleans. Then, as our body is well on it's way to healing and the baby has it's vaccinations, we go home.
Jeez... glad I've opted out of childbirth, now, and especially so if I had lived back then! Another fascinating vid, Lin. Thank you, & keep 'em coming, please! I 💜
The best part of this video: the part where we learned about the Fujiwara Clan, the clan that famously married their daughters into the Imperial Family, thereby allowing them control over the Heian Court for 200 years
I much prefer giving birth in a squatting position. My first got stuck while trying to push her out for three hours on my back. I would have greatly appreciated a rope for my first. But I just used my husband to squat and she popped out. Next two births I used a squatting stool and it made pushing go from three hours down to about twenty minutes.
@@fridaaa0 well some women prefer other positions depending on your body type. A friend of mine prefers giving birth on all fours rocking back and forth. You can research plenty of other positions. I had to use a squat assist or squatty potty to give birth. Best of luck either way.
There are many things that we can be grateful for that we are living in the present time. Thank you for this video, sounds like an interesting topic/inspirations for horror movie buffs like us
For a good insight into how giving birth was during the last years of the Heian period, there is also the account of Emperor Antoku's birth in the Heike Monogatari
