Among the Barriai in New Pomerania the woman is confined whilst sitting on a log of wood, being massaged from above downwards by an older woman. The husband is not allowed to be present. The birth generally passes off quite easily. The navel cord is cut off with an obsidian knife. The parents may not eat pork and certain kinds of fish until the child has begun to walk. Disregard of this prohibition is believed to bring about the death of the child. The parents abstain also during this time from sexual intercourse. Abortives do not seem to be known, though miscarriages sometimes occur through the rough treatment of pregnant women by men (Friederici, p. 89). In Polynesia abortion is generally produced by women professionally. This is brought about by the use of certain foods or drinks, by the application of mechanical means, etc. How widespread feticide is in Melanesia can be seen from a statement of Parkinson, according to whom in New Mecklenburg quite young girls make no secret of having produced abortion three or four times. Among the Jabim (Finschhafen) the mothers present their daughters with abortives when they get married (Buschan, I., p. 62).
On the eastern islands of the Torres Straits (Australia) the women chew as a prevention of pregnancy the leaves of Callicarpa, or of a Eugenia species called sobe, also the leaves of a large shrub called bok; but these remedies are inefficacious. Medicines and mechanical methods are used for abortion. Among the former are the leaves of the convolvulus, of Clerodendron, Pouzolzia microphylla, Macaranga tanarius, Terminala catappa, Eugenia, Hibiscus tiliaceus, and Callicarpa. If these do not help, the abdomen is beaten with large stones, with a rope or twigs or a wand, or a heavy load is put on it. Sometimes the woman leans with her back against a tree, and two men grasp a wand and press it against her abdomen, so as to bring about the delivery of the fœtus. This often results in the death of the mother.
On the Easter Island, in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, there were several men with a knowledge of midwifery, but recently only one of them has survived. Nowadays older women act as midwives. Walter Knoche writes (1912, pp. 659 et seq.): "The birth takes place either in the open or in the house, the woman standing with legs spread out, or recently in a sitting position. The accoucheur stands behind the parturient woman, embracing her abdomen. The thumbs are spread out, and touch each other in a horizontal position somewhat above the navel, while the remainder of the hand is turned diagonally downwards. In this way massage is applied by a slow, rhythmical, strong and kneading movement vertically from above downwards. When the birth is sufficiently advanced, the child is drawn out; the assistant bites off the navel cord (among some Brazilian Indian tribes the husband does this, but on the Easter Island he takes no part in the delivery); then a knot is made a few centimetres from the navel. The after-birth is not specially dealt with; it is buried. The navel cord, however, is placed in a calabash, which is buried or put under a rock. After the event the lying-in woman lies down upon a mat in the house, and warm, flat, fairly heavy stones are applied to the abdomen. Perhaps this is the reason why even women who have had difficult confinements still preserve a good figure. The infant remains at the mother's breast for about a year." Knoche also heard that the women sometimes pass a piece of an alga into the vulva right up to the womb before intercourse with a stranger, believing this method to be a very safe one. It could, unfortunately, not be ascertained whether this precaution was formerly, as seems likely, resorted to generally in order to limit the number of children, or whether its use was only intended to keep the tribe untainted by foreign blood. The latter assumption is contradicted by the fact that "the Easter Island women have children from strangers living for some time on the Easter Island, and that nowadays the use of contraceptives in the case of strangers who come and go quickly may simply be due to the circumstance that at the birth of a child there would be no man to support it. It is most probable that the use of preventives had its origin in Malthusian principles. The little island, whose population has been variously estimated by travellers of the eighteenth and the first half of the nineteenth century at a few thousand, must herewith have reached its maximum number of inhabitants, which could of necessity not be exceeded. Deaths and births had therefore to balance. This employment of contraceptives in Polynesia is unique, and it may be truly reckoned as a sign of a higher civilisation, together with other facts, such as the existence of a script, of stone houses and of large stone idols, the Moai, which have made this lonely little island so famous. On the other Oceanic Islands, as, for instance, on the westward-situated Tahiti, infanticide, committed by the mother as many as ten times in succession, served to limit the number of children, either on account of economy or for reasons of convenience. Contraceptives are otherwise unknown in Oceania."
Of the Jao in East Africa Karl Weule relates (p. 61): "During the delivery the parturient woman lies upon her back on a mat on the floor of the hut. The older children and the husband are not allowed to be present, but a number of older women are there, amongst whom there is always a near relative of the husband, who takes special note of any evidence of extra-marital intercourse given by the parturient woman. It is the chief business of the midwives to submit the woman to a very strict questionnaire: 'How many men have you had, three, or four, or even more? Your child will not come until you have mentioned the right father. Yes, you will die, if you do not tell us how many men you have had.' Such speeches are hurled at the woman from all sides. No mechanical help is given her. She rolls about in pain, under great bodily and mental torture, and shrieks and cries until all is over. The navel cord is cut off by an old woman. Ancient instruments, such as are used by the East African Bantu tribes, are unknown among the Jao. The cutting of the navel cord seems to be performed clumsily, for umbilical rupture, which has become an ideal of beauty in many places in Eastern Africa, is here frequent. The after-birth and the navel cord are buried, if possible without a witness. They are considered effective magical remedies. The new-born child is washed and then wrapped in a cloth or a piece of bark fabric. A real lying-in is not kept up; the mother gets up again the same or the following day. Sex intercourse can only be resumed again with the permission of the village elder. It is only given when the child can sit up, or when it is six or seven months old. Children are welcome; twins are no less joyfully received. But infanticide is said to occur. If, however, children are not wanted, married women as well as girls resort to abortion. Plant juices are generally used for this purpose, though sometimes mechanical means are resorted to. Abortion is in no way considered reprehensible. In order to prevent conception, the woman puts herself into communication with a fundi, who understands something of making knots. The fundi goes into the wood, seeks out two different barks, and twists them together into a cord. Into the cord he rubs the yolk of an egg, for to the Jao the curse of infertility abides in the egg. He knots into the cord three knots, saying at the same time, 'You tree are called thus and thus, and you thus; but you egg, you become a living animal. But now I do not want anything living.' He then twists the final knot. This cord is worn by the woman round her body. Boots are also placed under her head at night to prevent conception. If the woman wishes to become pregnant again, she needs only to untie the knots in the cord, to put it into water, and then drink the water. Afterwards the cord is thrown away."
Among the Makua, on the Makonda plateau in East Africa, at the first sign of labour pains the woman lies down upon her back on a mat in the house. A cloth is put under her back by the helping women, which is drawn tightly and pulled up when the pains become stronger. After the birth the navel cord is cut, not with a knife, but with a splinter from a millet stalk. Here, as in other phases in the life of man, an ancient implement has survived for sacred purposes long after the period of its common use. The navel cord is not tied, but dries off. The removed part is buried. The lying-in woman remains at home three or four days.
Among the Masai an old woman is always called in as midwife. If the birth goes on normally, no superstitious or useless operations are undertaken (Merker, pp. 189 et seq.). Should an increase of labour pains appear necessary, the parturient woman is led round by the women for a few steps, and if this does not produce the desired result light massage is applied. Only when these remedies prove to be inefficacious an extreme step is taken: the labouring woman is slowly lifted up by her feet by several women until her body hangs perpendicularly and her head touches the ground, whereupon the midwife massages the body in the direction of the navel. Medicaments are seldom used for hastening the delivery. Internal manual or operative manipulations do not seem to be practised anywhere. In the case of a narrow pelvis preventing birth, no help is available; mother and child perish. The confinement takes place on all fours or in a sitting position; in the latter case the legs and the back are pressed against the posts of the hut. For the production of abortion a decoction of dried goat dung or of cordia quarensis or some other remedy is used.
Of the Hottentots it has sometimes been reported that the women have easy births. According to Schulze's inquiries (p. 218), this is not always the case. The birth takes place in the side position. During very difficult births the women attempt to widen the vulva of the parturient woman. If that does not help, the perineum is deliberately torn up to the anus. No attempt is made to cure the perineal tear, for the belief exists that it would hinder the passage of the next child. All manipulations are carried out beneath the skin rug under which the woman lies. The navel cord is cut without delay; no one troubles about the delivery of the after-birth. The woman resumes her occupation generally on the seventh or eighth day. Feticide is not unusual among the Hottentots. A hot decoction of badger urine, drunk, if necessary, for several days in succession, is considered an effective abortive remedy. The procedure itself is characteristically called "drinking and falling" (Schulze, p. 320).
Among the Uti-Krag Indians of the Rio Doce (Espirito Santo, Brazil) the woman goes through the labour alone. She disappears in the bush, and herself bites off the navel cord; after the delivery she goes to the nearest stream to wash herself and the child, and rejoins her tribe immediately (Walter Knoche, 1913, p. 397).
Among the Indians of the Aiary, when a woman is taken with labour pains all the men leave their house, which is common to several families. The woman lies in her hammock in her part of the house, which is securely closed by a lattice railing. All the women remain with her and help at the birth. The navel cord and after-birth are buried immediately on the spot. After the birth the mother and the child remain strictly secluded for five days. The husband remains in the house during the lying-in period, but there is no real couvade (the male lying-in custom).