Birth and Infancy

Birth rites celebrate the entry of a new individual into the community. They can therefore include several types of ceremonies, including:

• Conception and pregnancy rites: ceremonies anticipating the birth of a new life. Such a ceremony could be combined with a baby shower. Or it could be a special ceremony marking the quickening of the baby, its first movement in the womb.
• Childbirth rituals: ceremonies around the moment of birth of a new baby. This would most likely be small, including the parents and birthing staff at the place of the birth.
• Baby blessing or naming ceremonies: ceremonies that acknowledge the child’s place in the community, often including formally bestowing on the baby his or her new name and celebrating the baby’s entry into the family and community, and perhaps including wishes for the baby’s future.
• Adoption ceremonies: Like a naming ceremony, a ritual to celebrate the entry of the child into her or his new family and community.

For the community, a birth or an adoption can be a life-changing occasion, especially if it is a first child and/or first grandchild. The parents move from being simply a married couple to being parents. Their parents become grandparents. Their siblings become aunts and uncles. Perhaps a family friend becomes a godparent. And perhaps most significantly the entry of the infant or newly adopted child into the household will guarantee that the new parents’ relationship to each other and the new family’s relationship to other family and friends will be different from this time forward.

Even though a birth itself is a relatively brief point in time (the parents’ perceptions during labor and delivery notwithstanding) the preparation for the change and the adjustment period afterward can take quite a lengthy period of time. I am therefore using a broad definition of “birth” here, encompassing the time period from conception (or the decision to adopt) through the first ceremonies introducing the newborn to the society or identifying the adopted child’s place within the society.

Bringing a new child into the world—or into a family—is indeed a momentous occasion, one that calls for celebration of the new life for the child as well as the change in the life of the family. If you would like to celebrate this life-changing event in a way that acknowledges what this event means to all concerned, contact me; I can help you create your perfect ceremony.