The birth of a child is not necessarily a mere physiological sequence initi-
ated by sexual intercourse and culminating in birth. It is a long process that can have
religious and spiritual significance for those involved, whether or not they adhere to a
religious tradition. There is something wondrous about the kicks a pregnant woman
feels in her belly, and about the first cry that turns the newborn from blue to pink.
There is something miraculous about how a sperm merges with an ovum to grow into
a full fledged baby and eventually into an intelligent, thinking human being. However
much is explained by microscopic cameras and genetic codes, the birth of a child makes
one realize the existence in our universe of a power, or even a world, beyond our under-
standing. Judaism calls this power "God." Childbirth is the prerequisite for perpetuating
God's world. In this sense, it is religiously significant. In Jewish tradition, fertility is a
divine blessing and God is a partner in conception, supervising pregnancy and the safe
arrival of a child. Childbirth is a spiritual experience for those who recognize this part-
nership. In addition, the birth of a child is significant for Jews not only as individuals,
but also as a people, because the arrival of a new child promises their continuity.

The idea for this book came to me as my neighbor and I were discussing
our recent experiences of childbirth. Both of us had given birth a few months earli-
er, each to our third child, and we were discussing the emotions of our pregnancies.
My neighbor pointed out that the books she had read about pregnancy and the med-
ical treatment she had received had ignored this aspect of her pregnancy. We agreed
that most contemporary, nonreligious childbirth literature makes no mention of the
mystical experiences aroused by the discovery of having conceived, by feeling the
baby kick, by holding the baby for the first time in our arms, or at any or every other
moment in the childbearing process. I then realized that most of the Jewish literature
on childbirth similarly ignores the emotional and spiritual aspects of this process.This
literature is mainly in the Orthodox domain, concerned with the Jewish laws regard-
ing pregnancy and birth. This is not what I, my neighbor, or the large percentage of
Jewish parents who do not adhere to halakhah (Jewish Law) relate to when thinking
about childbirth. Nor do the many books on Jewish ethnography and folklore go into
much detail on childbearing other than the topic of circumcision, which is amply
documented. For these reasons, I resolved to explore in depth the emotions, beliefs,
customs, and traditions of childbirth among Jews.

I set out to research the attitudes toward childbirth held by Jewish women
and men, born in all corners of the Jewish Diaspora and in Israel, as well as their fam-
ily customs and community traditions, by interviewing two hundred people--preg-
nant women, mothers, fathers, grandmothers, and elderly midwives--living in Israel.

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