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Voices and images: Mayan Ixil women of Chajul
Chapter Two: The culture of the Maya Ixil
8. Recovery in the temascal
If the child is born without problems, the mother and grandmother of the woman take care of it and they don’t need to call the midwife. The husband can take part if the woman wants him to and he helps her to stay in the squatting position, so that the labor of giving birth is easier for her.
On the day after the birth the other sisters prepare the fire in the temascal so that the grandmother can bathe the newborn. On the third day they walk the woman to the temascal and it’s the grandmother who receives her at the door and helps her to bathe for the first time. Her body is slapped gently with plant branches to warm her up. By the time the two women leave the temascal, they are thirsty and so they are given coffee with chile so that the mother’s milk is heated and doesn’t harm the baby. The bath in the temascal is repeated every three days for 40 days.
In Chajul, the women go for 40 days without leaving the house. For the first three days the woman remains lying down and then she gets out of bed and goes about doing minor domestic chores.
The grandmothers pass a hoe, a machete, an axe, and a sewing needle over the hand of the newborn boy. This is like a blessing from the grandmothers so that when he is grown he will be a worker. They pass a weaving shuttle and the grinding stone over the hand of the baby girl so that when she is grown she can weave her clothing and grind corn on the stone. They pass chile and salt over the mouth of both of them so that they not become gossips as adults. The visitors bring different, specially woven clothes to dress the newborn: they present girls with their corte and woven sash and they present boys with their shirt and woven belt.
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