Laboring Alone

In America, the birthing process is relatively sanitary. A woman typically receives prenatal care throughout the nine months of her pregnancy. As she nears the estimated due date, she is even more closely monitored. When her water breaks or her contractions reach a certain level of frequency, she heads to the hospital. In many cases, deliveries are now scheduled months in advance.

When an expectant mother is admitted to the hospital, she is placed in a gown, lays on a table, and is covered with a sheet. She is hooked up to machines to monitor her progress, and nurses watch and attend her until she is ready to push, at which time a doctor comes in and supervises the final delivery of the child and afterbirth. The baby is washed and wrapped and handed to the welcoming parents. Loved ones often eagerly await the opportunity to visit, bring a meal, and shower the young family with love, gifts, and attention.

Obviously, the biological process of birth has not changed much in the past 2,000+ years. Women today still conceive, carry, and deliver a baby in the same manner that women in the first century did. Most Hebrew women would also have been surrounded by family and friends welcoming the birth of their babies. While, they would not have had a physician to monitor the deliveries, most would have been assisted by a mid-wife or at least a mother, aunt, or other relative.

Mary’s labor and delivery, therefore, is another example of how the first Christmas was one of crisis.

As a result of the emperor’s census, Joseph was summoned to his ancestral hometown, Bethlehem. I don’t know if the law required that Mary attend with him, but we know from scripture that she did. It’s possible that she didn’t want to remain in Nazareth alone in her condition. Perhaps her pregnancy had forced a certain amount of alienation between the couple and their families and friends. So, the very-pregnant Mary made the journey with Joseph.

It was about 70 miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem and would have taken about 3 days to travel there. It’s rare to see a recreation of the Nativity scene that doesn’t have a donkey, but there is no scriptural indication of whether the young couple had any means of transportation other than their feet.

Scripture also doesn’t give us many details about Jesus’s birth. We know that He was born in Bethlehem, and we can assume that Mary went into labor soon after they arrived. Bethlehem would have been busy and crowded because of the census. While we like to imagine Mary and Joseph tucked inside a neat little barn, the reality isn’t quite as comfortable or cute. There was no lodging, no rooms available for rent, no long-lost relatives willing to share their home, no tent or temporary shelter for the young couple. So, where did they stay? Our only hint is the mention of a manger.

The manger was a feeding trough. Of course, this is why we associate the birth of Jesus with a stable. But in Biblical times, animals were not necessarily kept in a barn. In warmer months, they may have been housed outside in a courtyard. In colder months, they were sometimes kept in caves or shared a room adjacent to the family’s lodgings or underneath their sleeping quarters. Regardless of the location, we can safely assume that if a manger was there, so too were animals.

Birthing conditions for most women during this time period would have been considered unsanitary by today’s standards. Most women labored on a mat or birthing stool on a dirt floor. They would have been used to sounds and smells of animals nearby. So, the physical location, then, may have not been the most concerning aspect of Mary’s circumstances. For Mary, the problem was that she was alone.

Of course, Joseph was there, but it’s unlikely that he had any previous birthing experience. Thankfully, Mary probably had witnessed a few in her lifetime. It’s even possible that she assisted with her cousin Elizabeth’s delivery (Luke 1:23-24 and 1:39-56).

There is no reason to believe that the physical aspects of Mary’s delivery would have been any different from any other woman’s, but the Bible simply states the basic facts. Nature took its course. With all the toil and tears, pain and pushing, blood and brokenness expected of any delivery, and with no mother to comfort her and no midwife to guide her, Mary birthed a son.

Unless Joseph stepped in, we have to believe that Mary attended to herself as she labored, as she delivered, as she cut the baby’s cord, and delivered the afterbirth. Then, with all the bloody mess that was left behind, when she should have been resting in her husband’s arms, she performed the duties of the midwife, wiping and wrapping the baby in strips of cloth and laying him in a nearby manger.

It’s not as picturesque as we make it seem.

As special as she was, Mary was still a young woman, as human as you and I. I’m sure that she was frightened. I’m sure that she screamed and cried. I’m sure that she missed the familiar comfort of home and family. Her experiences should help us remember. Our obedience doesn’t make us immune to the natural order of things. Mary did nothing wrong. In fact, her pregnancy was a blessing, an honor. Still, the circumstances of her life did not appear to be blessed. Her difficulties must not have felt divine.

Life is like that. Because of the curse of sin, there will always be problems and pain, even when we are trying our best to do what’s right. Suffering is inevitable, and sometimes, it seems, that we are suffering alone.

We know the rest of the story, the story that Mary may have known but could not have completely understood in those moments of pain. Suffice it to say, she was never alone, and that’s the promise for us as well. Nature will take its course. Accidents will happen. Disasters will strike. Diseases will enter our bodies. Death will come. Life sometimes feels like one crisis after another, but there is Hope. The Hope of the world was with Mary that first Christmas, and He is with us as well.

Read Tricia’s Christmas blog, Holding onto Hope When You’re Lonely, and discover what corn mazes and microwaves have to do with Christmas.