Birth in Saudi Arabia

         Children are a precious gift from God, and the blessing of a child is a special time in a person's life. All cultures and religious traditions have certain ways of welcoming a newborn child into the community .Muslim women tend to prefer all-female attendants at the birth, whether they be doctors, nurses, midwives, or female relatives. However, it is permissible in Islam for male doctors to attend to a pregnant woman. There is no Islamic teaching that prohibits fathers from attending the birth of their child; this is left up to personal choice. Mothers used to give birth at home, perhaps with the assistance of a midwife. Infants were cared for by their mothers, who carried them everywhere and nursed them. Other women in extended households, including longtime domestic servants, participated actively in rearing children, teaching them Arabian culture and mores. Fathers and uncles and grandfathers did not take part in child care but played with the children, kissed them, and taught them genealogies and morality. They taught them generosity and hospitality by example.Intense family and kin-based socialization at home is now mainly a memory. Birth takes place at a hospital, and infant boys are circumcised there before going home (girls are not circumcised). A foreign maid or nanny who may speak little or no Arabic often does much of the work of child rearing. This is an issue that troubles many Saudi Arabians. Breast-feeding sometimes is rejected for not being modern. While much visiting goes on among relatives, conjugal family households today do not provide the rich family learning setting of the past.