HINENGGEN MAN ÅMKO'

 

MUNGNGA TUMOHGE I MAPOTGE' NA PALAO'AN GI PAPA' I PETTA.

A  pregnant woman shouldn't stand under a door.

A woman was telling me that one of her pregnancies was a very difficult one. Her prior deliveries had been normal, but this one delivery in particular had been unbearably hard. The child just didn't want to exit! It took more than several days for her baby to be born, healthily, thank God.

Why was this delivery so painful and different? She had heard all her life, since childhood, that the man åmko' (elderly) said that a pregnant woman should NOT stand stand under a doorway. Either come in, or go out, but do not stand there idly.

And why not? Because if she does, her delivery will be very difficult.

And this lady regrets not paying attention to a belief she knew and heard about for a long time.

Maybe the belief comes from the idea that if the mother doesn't move through a door, either going or coming, neither will her child to be born move through the door of the birth canal. As she just stood there, not moving, neither will the baby in her womb.