Birthing chair

A birth stool, also called " birthing chair " or " Gebärschemel " is a special seating, the women intended to facilitate the birth. He was a long time of the basic equipment of midwives.

History

At all times and in all parts of the world women have been trying to relax by taking different attitudes at birth, and this also used different tools. There the upright posture of the upper body was usually preferred and supported because they allowed the use of gravity. The chosen seating range from suitable stones above stool up to elaborately constructed specialized furniture with art historical importance or current patent value.

Female Figurines in Çatalhöyük

In the Neolithic settlement of Çatalhöyük is the "mother goddess " the most famous copy of the figurines found there. It is dated to 5750 BCE and of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara to see in the museum. Since giving birth she sits on a stately chair, this could be regarded as the earliest documented birth chair.

Birth chair of the Egyptians

In Egypt, there were already about 2500 BC birth chairs. A nearly 4,000 -year-old copy of a magical birth brick was excavated at Abydos (Egypt) in 2001 by American archaeologist. Representations wooden birth stools are frequent in the reliefs on the walls of Mammisi (birth sanctuaries ) to find the late - Roman era. From this period dates the wall of the outer temple of Kom Ombo handling (40 km north of Aswan ), showing the " tool cabinet ", the comprehensive instrumentation, which was an Egyptian doctor. Links of this cabinet there are two female figures on birth stools; the lower figure is to be identified by the throne on her head as the Blessed Mother Isis.

The Bible mentions for the period of the bondage of the Israelites in Egypt (ca. second half of the 2nd millennium BC) the existence of birth stones. Whether this is historically reliable information from this period is controversial, as the biblical texts in any case are considerably younger than the period described. In the book of Exodus it is a horror a new Pharaoh who knew nothing of the great merits of Joseph, prior to the sharp increase in the number of the Israelites in their own land. He fears that this could rise up against him. So he orders the two Hebrew midwives Shifra and Puah, "When you give birth to the Hebrew women, and see to let the two stones that it is a boy, kill him; but it is a daughter, then she shall live " ( common translation: Ex 1.16 EU)! .

Here stands in the Hebrew Bible, the term אָבְנָיִם, which is the dual of stone, that means double stone. Most German translations of the Bible does not indicate the exact phrase again, but rewrite it or dismiss it entirely. The name obviously has an archaic seating that as the Egyptian birth bricks of two stones ( bricks ) was, leaving space between them for the discharge of the child from the womb.

The two midwives counter after the Pharaoh summoned to be for non-compliance of his command: " Do not like the Egyptian women are the Hebrew women. They are like animals, even before the midwife comes to them, they have given birth "(Ex 1,19 EU). Whether it can be concluded from these obvious protection claim that no birth chairs were common in the Hebrew women during this time, so it was a genuinely Egyptian furniture, is questionable.

Birth chairs in the Middle Ages and modern times

The birth on a birthing chair is the squatting posture at birth is very close, as it is known among primitive peoples, such as Africa, from many sources. In the countries and time periods in which hours of crouching on the floor at work, while eating, while talking etc. was not common, this attitude would have brought no relaxation of the muscles of the woman giving birth. There were therefore designed a wide variety of designs for seating and also communicates with the advent of book printing.

Because of the lack of effective contraception and because of the strong religious and social reservations about the abortion followed earlier in most women getting pregnant on the other. Therefore, a separate birth chair belonged in ancient times many of the basic equipment of a midwife or a wealthy woman. Such pieces of furniture were in fact designed not only functionally but sober often complex artistic.

The beds and chairs offered today in the delivery room are easy to clean and comfortable designs with motorized adjustable sections and supports ( possibly even with the mother pivoted as in the case of Romarads ), which allow a great variability in the posture at birth. Thus, on the one hand gravity used during birth and on the other hand the midwife or the doctor of views and access to the birth canal easier.