What Was Churching After Childbirth? Churching of Women After Childbirth | Why Were Women Churched?

From a secular source.

What did the CHURCHING of a woman after childbirth entail and why was this ceremony thought necessary in the past? Was it a sign of the patriarchy, of men subjugating women, or was it a popular female ceremony which was looked forward to and even enjoyed by the new mothers? In this week’s documentary from History Calling we look at the history of churching. The video will cover churching’s basis in scripture, its links to Judaism, Catholicism and Protestantism, why churching was performed, how churching was done, and how it changed over the years, plus the practice of making an offering to the church upon the occasion (generally the baby’s chrisom cloth, or else cash), why women wearing a veil was a contentious issue and whether churching was a punishment for sin (based on the idea that women were impure after giving birth), or a celebration of a woman’s survival of childbirth. I’ll also tell you how churchings were different for mothers of illegitimate children, how the Puritans reacted to this ritual in 1640s England, what happened to women who died in childbirth without being churched and how popular churching remained even into the mid 20th century. You’ll learn too why unchurched women were called green women and why the month after their delivery was referred to as their husband’s gander month.