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

If anyone is interested about the origins of this tradition read Leviticus chapter 12.
As Monika says, strange that it has lasted so long.
I can't understand why the waiting period is longer after the birth of a girl, compared with a boy.

This makes me curious , how DO people find these dormant threads ?
I never seem to !

I just did a google asking the history of Getting Churched and it lead me here. I married a Geordie from North Shields UK. I'm an aussie, and after the birth of our first child his grandmother who just lived around the corner would not come to visit or we could not go to here house until I had been churched...???? I am not religious even though we got married in Christ Church... a Church of England.. Anglican. To please hubbies family.

So yes I went along to the church and the minister spoke some words over me and mentioned that it had to do with being cleansed after the birth....

STRANGE... that was in North Shields 1976. So some oldies back then still believed in that and I just went along not to make waves...

Interesting, because the unclean symbolism passed me by, I went to church to give thanks for a safe delivery and a healthy baby, it was a happy occasion for me.

Quite .

Penstemon, yes this was at one time the custom for new mothers not to be accepted into homes unless they had been churched but i think for years this had become a superstition. My mother was churched but never told she couldn't enter homes, she too chose it as a small service of thankfulness , so that's my knowledge of Churching of women in the forties, fifties, sixties and seventies , no mention of not entering homes and no suggestion by the Priests that it should be 'done'

That's what I thought, nonu. Ancient history and all that

Yeah but it was a thing before your time , Bags !

thought, not though

Heard about it, yes (though it died out long ago). Thought further about it, nope. Celebrated the births of my children with other loved ones, yes, of course.

I definitely wasn't.

Can't remember if I was or not!

I was in hospital for 10 days after DD1 was born (best holiday I've ever had)

One day a vicar appeared in the ward and asked who would like to be churched? I'd heard of the practice and was not interested in the whys or wherefores but I trotted along with a few others because I had nothing else better to do. It was a simple service and I think the words 'blood' and 'cleansed' were probably mentioned but I can't say I felt any better for it.

A simple thanksgiving for a safe delivery would probably have made more of an impact.

I didn't bother with it after my other children were born.

lily soneone earlier was saying they were not allowed ina house because they were 'unclean' from childbirth. I know nothing of any of these practices!

I was 'churched' after the birth of our two daughters, 1969 and - 1970. No one suggested I should, I chose to. As a Christian I found it gave me that quiet time to give thanks for our babies. No mention or thoughts of sin , just joy for the blessings of two new little lives.

Sorry - Elegtan - just read on to "for a girl child etc"

And a mother who has given birth to a female child, I wonder??

I have no problem with the service of thanksgiving. Too many people take childbirth for granted in out developed world and if one is religiously incilined it seems eminently appropriate to register gratitude for a healthy baby and a healthy mother.

The anglican ceremony is to give thanks for the safe arrival of the child, though it was performed after a still-birth too or if the child had died unbaptised.

"It contains no elements of purification but is related to Jewish practice as noted in Leviticus 12:2-8" . . . " Under Mosaic law as found in the Old Testament, a mother who had given birth to a man-child was considered unclean for seven days; moreover she was to remain for thirty-three days "in the blood of her purification."

For a girl child, it was fourteen days and sixtysix days. In the seven days of a womean's normal menstrual flow, she was also considered unclean, and anything she touched had to be purified (including her man, who could not "lie with her" - euphemism)

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Churching_of_women
www.enduringword.com/commentaries/0312.htm

Where is there anything about being unclean?

I have heard of this , I myself was not "Churched" !

I can understand a religious act of of thanksgiving having been 'safely delivered' etc but the rest about being unclean is just 'holy men' nonsense! Repressive and awful.

This is the actual service from the Book of Common Prayer, 1552. When you think how hazardous childbirth was (sadly, still is in some places) not surprising! users.ox.ac.uk/~mikef/bcp1552.html

Sorry to bring this up again, but was looking up "churching" as my mother did it and was a non-church goer, disliked lots of things about Christianity, but enjoyed having babies....,as one turns into one's mother in some respects,some of the things she said pop into my mind now she is no longer here,
In doing so, I came upon this site and found the unclean topic very interesting.

I have just finished reading The White Princess, about the wife of Henry 7th. When she had Arthur and Henry 8th, her mother in law, the Red Queen, made sure she did not come out of confinement until she had been churched. I think it was six weeks. But it was so she could pretend to rule with Henry Tudor for as long as possible.
It happened to me in 1967 when my eldest was born. My mother's cousins would not see me or my son until I had been churched. Their father had been a C of E vicar. When his brother was born two years later, we did not live in the same place, so they did not know I had not been churched. Come to think of it, I still haven't!

Nina - if you read the whole thread you will get the full story!