Birth and chilla

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Secrecy surrounds the birth itself: as soon as a woman starts her contractions, family members try to hide this from other people. A typical example was Zaynab Opa’s cho- sen way to deal with her daughter-in-law’s parturition. She did not mention her daugh- ter-in-law’s visit to the maternity ward until after the birth of her granddaughter. Keep- ing birth secret is mentioned by Firshtein (1978), who said hiding the process of birth from everybody (even the neighbours) was because, especially at this time, the mother and child are vulnerable and could be harmed by evil. Interestingly, as Firshtein (1978) pointed out, this secrecy not only meant that outsiders did not know, but even that the

midwife could be called at the last minute. The reason given was that when more people knew, the birth might be complicated and continue longer. Carol Delaney (1991, 63), who did research in Islamic village in Turkey found a similar practice to the Uzbek one and concluded that ‘the secrecy is due in part to shame’.

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Zaynab Opa’s daughter-in-law was taken to the maternity ward during the night. As soon as she left, Zaynab Opa made a duo (supplication), and prepared some money and a white scarf (oqliq ). She intended to use these to celebrate after the woman had been 45

delivered of her baby. After the baby’s birth, her son came home and received his

suyunchi (present for good news) from her, then he went to his wife’s family’s house to

collect suyunchi from the wife’s parents. After the birth, Zaynab Opa called her relatives and friends and told her neighbours, and the news spread to other neighbours, who came to congratulate her.

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Women stay in hospital from about three to five days, but may stay longer if delivery is difficult. Zaynab Opa’s daughter-in-law came out of hospital in four days. The day of coming home from hospital is a special occasion and during the Soviet period it was celebrated within the small circle of the family. However, nowadays these occasions are organised by videographers, with posh cars and Disney characters.

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The celebration described below was for Zaynab Opa’s second grandchild, and the cer- emony was smaller than for the firstborn. Still, a videographer was hired to record the entire procedures of the day. Everything started by Zaynab Opa’s son arriving in a lim-

Oqliq - a white scarf or white piece of material, which it is believed will make any task easy; the con

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ousine at the hospital to pick up his wife and child, accompanied by two more cars car- rying other relatives. He gave presents and flowers to the midwives and nurses who had helped with the birth. Further, when her daughter-in-law returned home from hospital with her newborn baby, she entered walking on a new piece of material (payandoz , 46

more details Chapter 4, 4.3.4). Zaynab Opa showered (sochalak) mother and child with money and sweets, which were then picked up by children and guests. Often people take these sweets to their own daughters or daughters-in-law for good luck (wishing they might also have a baby). At the end of this celebration, Zaynab Opa’s mother made a long duo. A few days later, the videographer delivered an album and a video cassette with the family movie he had made.

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The practices connected with birth and children have changed since independence. As with the marriage rituals, the practices which re-emerged after Independence have been subject to influences from the changing outside world and the practices connected with birth have also started adopting new trends. Among the trends I observed during my fieldwork is that fathers coming to pick up the baby from the maternity ward sometimes bring with them a few people dressed up as Disney heroes. In the practice of birth the notions of ‘shame’ and ‘secrecy’, are changing under foreign and particularly American influence into something ‘open’, ‘fun’ and ‘modern’.

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Another recent innovation is dressing a female baby in bridal clothes when she is taken home from the maternity ward. Traditionally, as Hadicha Opa explained to me, babies were swaddled in their grandparents old, cotton clothes, which was also mentioned in

New piece of cloth. Laying payandoz at the entrance is an old practice. Its meaning is to show respect, 46

love and attention to the person; people also use this practice when they have very respected guests, and during wedding practices for the groom and bride.

Soviet (Arifkhanova 2005, Firshtein 1978, Karmisheva 1969) and post-Soviet studies. The older custom was practical because the old clothes were worn and soft, and the baby’s body could breathe inside the material. It reflected the parents’ wish for the baby to be like the grandparent and live as long a life as the grandparent had.

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Again mirroring pre-and post-independence wedding rituals, the extravagance in cele- brating a birth was already noted – and criticised by - Soviet and pre-Soviet commenta- tors, and has continued, but in a different form. People now compete with each other at the celebration of a birth on the number of cars, the number of guests, the quality of the video, the baby’s presents and much more. Some people call this the extravagant ‘dream’ (orzu-havas), and fieldwork observations show that the conspicuous consump- tion of goods is partly competition with others and partly the use of extravagance to show and share joy.

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