There is a lot of national signs connected with appearance of the child on light. One of such signs demands to protect mother and the newborn from foreign people, allowing to communicate with them only to close relatives, because of danger of a malefice, damage and diseases. Sometimes and young mothers, hardly calming the kid, in any way not the person interested to fill up after the visit of numerous relatives, doubt whether so the bans and restrictions which worried centuries are irrational.
Why it is impossible to show the newborn?
The ban to show newborns to someone, except the closest relatives, originates in an extreme antiquity. On Christian canons of the child did not take out from the house and did not show to foreign people before the sacrament of baptism which was usually made for the fortieth day after the birth. Was considered that after the baptism of the child the guardian angel will preserve against the evil, and before to the baby both evil spirits, and foreign people can do much harm.
The pre-Christian tradition also demanded to protect newborns from strangers during rather long time after the birth. Childbirth was the beginning of transition of the child from the other world to the world live, and on completion of this transition time was required – on average this period lasted the same 40 days.
The superstitions which lived up to now claim that newborn child even the people who are not bearing him the malice can easily maleficiate – for this purpose it is enough to them to praise the newborn or it is even simple to look at it.
Health of the newborn and people around
The requirement to limit contacts of the child with strangers has the concrete reason far from religion and magic. The immunity of the newborn is developed insufficiently – the organism of the kid does not develop own antibodies capable to struggle with infections yet, they arrive to it only from maternal milk. Therefore babies are vulnerable for any infections and easily are infected even at short-term contacts with patients or during stay in places of a big congestion of people. Doctors I recommend to limit contacts at least within the first month of life of the child, and in cold season when epidemics of viral diseases arise most often, to try to avoid emergence with the kid in public places. Even if the relative or the friend assures that he is absolutely healthy, his words can not correspond to the truth. The incubation period of infectious diseases passes asymptomatically, however sometimes the infecting agent can already be allocated to the external environment, so, the diseased, but not knowing about it the person yet can be infectious for people around. So-called children's infections are especially dangerous to kids – some of them (for example, chicken pox) at newborns proceed very hard. Therefore you should not show soon after birth the baby to cousin brothers and sisters or children of friends. Besides, kids badly transfer the vanity and noise reigning around. It, but not mythical "malefice", the concern, crying, difficulties with falling asleep arising at kids after the visit of relatives and friends of the family speak.