HRDLicKA] PHYSIOLOGICAL AND MEDH^AL OBSERVATIONS 61 



The llopi woman, if her heaUh is good, goes about her Hghter 

 duties to the last and, if no compHcations develop, takes actual rest 

 for a day or two only after confinement. She is delivered in most 

 cases in a kneeling or scjuatting position, on sand covered with rags. 

 She stays at least four days indoors, in obedience to a religious 

 custom, and ol)serves a stipulated diet." 



Methods of delivery in the Rio Grande pueblos and among the 

 Zuni are given by Mrs. M. C. Stevenson in The Sia {Eleventh Annual 

 Report of the Bweau of Ethnology, 132-143, and The Zuni In(Uans 

 {Twenty-third Annual Report of same Bureau, 297 et seci-). 



In an ordinary confinement among the Mohave the- little help that 

 is necessary is given by the older women among the relatives or 

 acquaintances. Wlieii the labor is difficult a woman is called in 

 "who knows how to help." There are several such women in the 

 tribe, and they have to be paid like the medicine-men. Most labors 

 are completed within half a day; some last up to two days. It is 

 believed by Mohave mothers that more pain is suffered in the case of 

 a girl, a boy being easier to deliver. The mother eats nothing the 

 fu'st day, drinking only warm water or a little soup. With her first 

 cliild the mother abstains from meat and salt for one month. With 

 successive children this time of abstinence is reduced to three or two 

 weeks.'' 



There is but little i>reparation for parturition among the Tara- 

 humare, and the labor usually does not last many hours, though 

 there are exceptions. The woman ties a sash about her waist, and 

 the tightening of this, which may be repeated, is supposed to aid the 

 delivery. Unless suffering from some accident the mother leaves the 

 ilwelling within a few hours to wash herself.' 



Among the Opata labor lasts usually from eight to eighteen hours, 

 but. instances are known of duration of but a few minutes, while, on 

 the other hand, in a small immber of cases several days elapsed 

 between the first occurrence of pains and the delivery, without pro- 



a At Oraibi, according to H. R. Voth, the parturient woman assumes a kneeling position witti both 

 hands on the floor. Attheraomentof birth the woman is usually left alone. When the child is delivered 

 the mother chews juniper twigs and some warm corn gruel is given her. If the delivery of the placenta 

 is retarded, the attending woman gently presses and kneads the abdomen. If that fails, she resorts to a 

 little broom (or brush) made of stiff grass, and with this gently strikes the hips and back of the patient, 

 at the same time pulling lightly on the cord. The mother is not allowed to eat or drink anything cold 

 throughout the lying-in period. Mr. Voth gives also, besides other details, an interesting account of 

 aid in diflicult labor and in a case of retained placenta. A woman was in labor for two days and a night 

 and was exhausted. Directed by an Indian called to help, the huslmnd of the patient knelt, placing 

 both of his hands on the floor. The woman was then laid across his back, but somewhat to one side 

 so that a downward pressure was applied to her abdomen. At the same time the helper applied gentle 

 pressure with his hands on both sides of the abdomen. The child (dead) was expelled in a very short 

 time and the woman's life saved. In another case where the placenta was retained, manipulation and 

 pressure were employed on the uterus, an old woman meanwhile pulling gentlj' on the cord.— See 

 II. R. Voth, Oraibi Natal Customs and Ceremonies, in Field Columbian Muneum Publications, Anthro- 

 pological series, vi, no. 2, Chicago, 1905. 



b The placenta and blood clots are placed in a cloth and buried l).y the women in some out-of-the-way 

 spot, although there appears to be no superstition connected with the act. 



c The placenta is burled deep and a stone is laid over it, so that dogs may not eat it. 



