Eve - Her Life And Times

Eve - Her Life And Times

CHILDBIRTH

Eve was the first woman to conceive a child, the first to harbor a fertilized egg in her womb. Did she understand the miracle taking place within her as her belly swelled and her child began to move? Did she know the wonder of love for a child yet unborn? The Bible doesn’t give us those answers. But it does tell us that Eve recognized that life was in God’s control. At Cain’s birth she exclaimed, “With the help of the LORD I have brought forth a man” (Genesis 4:1).

God’s judgment on Eve — “with pain you will give birth to children” — was no doubt exactly what Eve experienced in birthing this first child. It’s the process we appropriately term labor. Eve likely bore the pain and went through the entire birth with only Adam’s help.

Later, Hebrew women had the help of experienced midwives, who knew remedies for common delivery difficulties. Midwives’ responsibilities after the birth included cutting the umbilical cord, washing the newborn, rubbing it with salt for cleansing, and then wrapping it in swaddling cloths.

The birth stool referred to in Exodus 1:16 was probably a low stool on which the mother-to-be squatted, allowing the force of gravity to aid in the birth process. The midwife and possibly other close relatives held the mother’s hands to give comfort as well as stability as she bore down.

Women throughout the centuries have borne the results of Eve’s sin. Their pain in childbearing unites them in a common bond of an experience shared. The experience is an unusual combination of the earthly and at the same time the unearthly. The pains, the panting, the mess and disorder connected with the birth of a child are of the earth, of Eve herself. But what is brought forth, and the bond experienced between the mother and the child, is unearthly, something only the Creator of life could forge.