If a child is born in the morning they will give the mother a little
sugar and cocoanut to eat in the evening, but if it is born in the
evening they will give her nothing till next morning. Milk is given
only sparingly as it is supposed to produce coughing. The main idea of
treatment in childbirth is to prevent either the mother or child from
taking cold or chill, this being the principal danger to which they
are thought to be exposed. The door of the birth chamber is therefore
kept shut and a fire is continually burning in it night and day. The
woman is not bathed for several days, and the atmosphere and general
insanitary conditions can better be imagined than described. With
the same end of preventing cold they feed the mother on a hot liquid
produced by cooking thirty-six ingredients together. Most of these
are considered to have the quality of producing heat or warmth in the
body, and the following are a few of them: Pepper, ginger, _azgan_
(a condiment), turmeric, nutmeg, _ajwain_ (aniseed), dates, almonds,
raisins, cocoanut, wild _singara_ or water-nut, cumin, _chironji_,
[234] the gum of the _babul_ [235] or _khair_, [236] asafoetida, borax,
saffron, clarified butter and sugar. The mixture cannot be prepared for
less than two rupees and the woman is fed on it for five days beginning
from the second day after birth, if the family can afford the expense.