CHAPTER VIII
PREGNANCY AND CHILDBIRTH
We had to make a digression into the domain of sociology, led thereto by the Trobriand beliefs concerning procreation and spiritual incarnation and the great influence which these exert upon family and kinship. Let us now resume our consecutive account by considering the course of pregnancy and childbirth. In the first two sections of this chapter I shall describe one observance which is of outstanding interest to the ethnologist: the special public ceremonial performed when a woman is passing through her first pregnancy. The succeeding two sections will be devoted to the customs associated with childbirth and maternity in general.
I
preparation for the first pregnancy rites
Pregnancy is first diagnosed by the swelling of the breasts and the darkening of the nipples. At this time a woman may dream that the spirit of one of her kinswomen brings her the child from the other world to be reincarnated. If during the next two or three moons her menstrual flow makes no appearance, then, say the natives, it is certain that she has become pregnant (isuma). Native embryology teaches that four moons after the ap-
