Has anyone else heard of being "Churched" after the birth of a baby.?

Good lord - I thought "churching" was medieval, and died out long ago! I always understood it was about being cleansed (and yes, husbands/fathers got away without any sanctimony). I had no idea it was around in its archaic form so recently.

I am sure I heard my Anglican granny talk about 'churching' and she was, most likely, 'churched'. But after that, the family, by then resident in Scotland, adopted the Church of Scotland which, fortunately, had no truck with such ritualistic nonsense.

Surely it comes from the Old Testament (Leviticus 12), where a woman has to be 'purified' after childbirth. Nothing to do with St Paul, who doesn't mention the matter. In fact it is not mentioned at all in the New Testament except in passing in Luke 2.22, when Mary has to go up to the Temple to be 'purified' after the birth of Jesus.
BTW, like FlicketyB I do not recognise this fear that all RCs are supposed to have been indoctrinated with!

raggygranny My reference to St Paul was do with a male-dominated religion's – and aren't almost all of them – attitude to women. There is something deeply ironic about a virgin, herself the product of immaculate conception, needing to be purified after childbirth.

I was brought up in a Catholic family and, although fear was not instilled into us, guilt was. All the time. About silly things. In predominantly Catholic countries this is still the case.

Just to be very clear - I understood the comment about Paul to refer to the general male dominance of much (though not all) of Christianity.
I also suspect that "churching" although Biblical in the sense previously mentioned, harks back to older times. I also suspect that the very nice custom of setting aside a "special time" has been hi-jacked & twisted.

Of course the RC is a broad church, and those of us outside it will often only come across it at its best and at its worst, as those in the middle keep fairly quiet.
I well remember a tiny (now defunct) convent attached to a RC school in an industrial town where I worked in the 70s. If we got kids in there, the nuns would give them breakfast, wash them & sort out any uniform problems, get them to school on time & give them tea after. If there were any struggling families with even a whiff of RC about them, a good-hearted young priest would come (at the Health Visitor's or Social Worker's request) and baptise the children at home! I told this tale recently at a social gathering, and one lady (announcing herself as RC) told me I must have been mistaken and this could not have happened as the church wouldn't have allowed it! I hope that young priest has his place in the assured in the heaven I don't myself believe in!

No need to talk of its worst.

I think there is need to talk of its worst. The revelations of depradation in Ireland have been hidden for too long. We don't want to know this stuff because it's horrible but we need to know it to do something about it.

Of course there are plenty of good Catholics. But there are plenty of good people of every faith and of none. Religion is irrelevant when it come to goodness.

Sorry, absentgrana, I misunderstood your reference to St Paul, and entirely agree about male-dominated religion - one of the reasons I call myself a 'sort-of' Catholic. Of course we can only speak out of our own experiences, and I never experienced the RC church as instilling fear, though I appreciate that others did. The nuns who taught me were not Irish, which I suspect makes a difference. It is clear that the Church's privileged position in Ireland had a toxic effect on its adherents, as witness the appalling revelations still coming out.

Have not waded thought all these posts but did notice a couple of mentions of Sunday School. The purpose of Sunday school, I suspect, was so that parents could make more babies during their "rest" time on Sunday afternoons!

I had my daughter in 1975 and my mother in law told my husband that I must be 'churched' before I could come into their house.
I just told him to tell her that I wouldn't be getting 'churched' so it was up to her whether myself and the baby came into their house - but if I was not welcome then the baby would not be visiting either.

If I had thought for one moment that it was a true belief of hers I would have been more sensitive - but it was just a ridiculous superstition.
Its irritating when people choose to be all religious over one issue but totally ignore religious teachings in areas that do not suit them.
Mind you - it was six months before she let us in !

It's not such a huge thing now - it has the biblical origin of making the woman clean after child birth.
the relevant section of the Book of Common Prayer is here:
below the marriage bit

I am planning on having this done - mainly because it's a thanksgiving of the woman surviving childbirth - as you can imagine, a very important thing before "modern medicine" (lots of women dying etc - still being alive afterwards was definitely something to thank God for!)
These days, a lot of the emphasis is on the baby - at our church, they do a thanksgiving for the child when they're born - no mention of thought of the poor woman and her travail...
I like the words, as well - very similar to the traditional baptism, and also to parts of the wedding service itself. It's nice that in a male-dominated religion, the woman is recognised. (I suppose only this bit because it's God-in-woman made manifest - a reflection of Mary)

I was just about to say something similar to what nickelbabe has just written. I don't know if anyone watched that lovely tv series 'Churches and how to read them', but it showed some churches that had special areas for expectant mothers to go to for blessing because of the danger involved in childbirth [which still hasn't really gone away] and I did think [again before reading the above post] that perhaps it was also to do with cleansing the new mother who, having survived the childbirth itself still wasn't out of danger completely. But, then again it was probably still to do with us women being the ones who, from the Garden of Eden onwards have always tempted men into doing wicked things [it's always our fault] and childbirth is the ultimate proof of said wanton behaviour taking place.

Buddhism makes most complete sense to me.

I was churched after the birth of my daughter now 46 years old. Why I went along with it I don't know I must have been a different person than I am today. What rubbish! I can't remember anybody being there either. I was told I had to be 'done' before the christening. I quite agree with Gottheshirt. Why didn't I say No. I suppose you are in a different world when baby is only 3-5 weeks old and you're busy with washing nappies, cooking dinners and shopping. We were probably too tired to say No.

Indeed. The Wheel of Life. And no gods required.

That was a response to super's post.

Glad I didn't have your experience, expat. I think we do get stronger and better at saying no to what we think is unreasonable as we get older.

I had my first child in 1964. Whilst still in hospital - ten days for a first baby then - some of us were 'churched'. I don't remember anything about my being unclean or sinful - the vicar talked about us coming through pregnancy and birth safely. He pointed out that when he was a young vicar in the East End before the war being delivered safely meant something. As JessM said that was the reason . Maybe it was different for Catholics - whose babies used to be full of sin until christened. An RC friend said it was good if a baby cried during being anointed as it meant the devil had left its body. Also if an unbaptised baby died it went into Limbo! If thats the case my whole family will end up there looking after all those babies. I shan't mind as long as they aren't too colicky.

Just to add onto my remarks . Most of the Gransnet contributors seem to be either Christian or non - believers so no remarks have been made about other religion's traditions towards childbirth and all things related to that part of a woman's life. In Orthodox Jewish life woman are 'cleansed' by having a ritual bath after her period has ceased, having removed herself from her husband during her period. Also she is unclean for some time after the birth of her baby and again has a ritual bath. This is especially done with the Hasidim faction. I don't know about Muslims are other faiths. I'd be interested to know.

Dorsetpennt..you have just reminded me that the lovely minister (who married us) came to visit me in hospital after the birth of our first baby (the birth that caused all the hassle in the first place).
He said he was visiting in the hospital and had popped in to see me. He thought it was wonderful that my husband was at the birth and then said we should say little prayer to give thanks for a safe delivery.

SO maybe I had been ''Churched'' after all !!!! Never even thought about that until now !!!! 39 yrs later !!!!

My Mother told me she was "churched "after having me in the 50s & I think I can remember her going to church with my baby sister in '61. C of E not Catholic Mum & Nan asked me if I was going to be churched after birth of my first baby in '84 but I just said it wasn't done any more. No idea when the practice did die out. I always understood it to be a combination of thanksgiving, blessing and cleansing.

Grumpyoldwoman, You reminded me that the hospital chaplain visited after the births of both my children. I was the only woman on the ward willing to talk to him. See thread on talking to strangers!!!

My children are aged from 48 down to 40, five of them, and I remember being "churched" at the end of each of their baptism services, don`t know if I had the right to refuse, but would have been too timid to do so anyway. I always remember that part of it was giving thanks for being brought through the "dangers and perils of childbirth", which mildly amused me, as giving birth, to me anyway, was just like shelling peas!

My sister had a baby, out of wedlock, in 1950. My superstitious catholic mother asked her to get churched and she went along with it, even though she was an atheist. The priest refused to do it because she was not married.
Cleansed of what? I loathe the attitude of the Abrahamic faiths to sex and women. If I were forced to choose a religion, it would be one of the pagan types, where the only thing to be revered is nature and the earth itself.

Why is it always said that we should respect all faiths - some involve beating the devil out of children!

I attended a convent grammar school and whist we were constantly indoctrinated and questioning was considered sinful, the Old Testament was very little used- we mostly had to read the New Testament and learn the catechism. I find I usually know much more about catholicism than most practising catholics - know thine enemy! For example, you cannot just confess your sins and be forgiven - you have to have 'a firm purpose of amendment' - i.e. you have to mean sincerely not to sin that way again.

My mum said to me after I had my first child when am I going to be `churched` I asked her what did it mean and she had to admit she wasn't too sure be she had been `churched ` after the bith of all her children and the reason she did it was because it was the done thing and it was what was expected of her at the time .
I told her I wasn't going to do something I didn't understand ( still don't) she thought I had made the wrong choice but I was sure I hadn't.
Up to this very day I don't think I have missed out on anything !

My MIL told me that my baby would not have a name because she was not being baptised. I pointed out that her birth had been registered.

I have to point out that 'conceived without sin' does not imply that the act of conceiving is sinful, but that Mary and Jesus were born without original sin!