Lochlainneach

Dùthchas

Featured Gaelic and Pronunciations:

- Dùthchas (dooh-kahs) - a Gaelic word for a place one feels connected to and for traditions, customs, language and manners passed down through generations

- Struthan Mhìcheil (sroo-hahn vee-kehl) - Michael's bannock

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28 August, 1746

Castlebay, Isle of Barra, Scotland

"So Mrs. Laura MacNeil has gone into labour," I was explaining to Thora as we left the docks at Castlebay and headed into town. "Suppose the first question I have fer ye is do ye ken where bairns come from? How they're made?" Thora's pale white cheeks turned bright pink as she blushed furiously.

"Oh! I... I have an... idea," she said meekly.

"As a healer, it's important te understand exactly where they come from. Ye'll likely be asked a lot of questions by many mothers te be in the future. Can ye tell me what ye ken?"

"Er... Well, I ken ye need a man and a woman, and they... do things that only married people are te do," she told me.

"Good, tha's a start. Do ye ken how auld a woman needs te be or what conditions have te be met fer her te become pregnant?" I asked her, and she shook her head. "She needs te be havin' her courses. Once they start, a lass can have a bairn at any age. Have ye started yers, yet?"

"Oh, no, not yet," she told me, surprising me a little.

"Really? How auld are ye, Thora?" I asked her.

"Fifteen, Mistress," she told me.

"Fifteen," I repeated. "Tha's a wee bit auld fer yer courses no' havin' started yet, but nothin' te be worried about. Most women start it in their early teens or verra late childhood."

"How auld were you when your courses started?"

"Thirteen," I answered her. "Men, too, need te have hit what's called puberty. Their balls need te drop, their voices, too, will drop, and hair will begin te grow on their faces. Wee laddies cannae sire a child, but lads as teenagers can. And then yes, a bairn generally results from a man and a woman doin', as ye say, 'what married people are te do'. Do ye ken aboot how long a woman is expectin' fer?"

"I... I think nearly a year, aye?"

"Close, nine months from the drops of her last courses. In my case, I'm somewhere in the ballpark of six or maybe seven months pregnant."

"So you and yer husband... in... February? Or March?"

"I believe mid-February was when this weeun was conceived," I told her. "Means the bairn will come in mid-November."

"What aboot if they ask me what the gender is before it's born? How can ye tell?" Thora asked me eagerly.

"There's auld wives' tales that are sometimes accurate, but truly, there is no way te tell the sex until it's born. Not unless we had a way te look through the mother's womb while it's still in there." Well, in my time, we did, but not in the eighteenth century.

"So I should not encourage mothers te try them?"

"By all means, do. If it gives them a peace of mind, but ken fer yer own personal knowledge that they dinnae actually predict the sex," I replied. "It's important te ken, too, that not all bairns come when they're supposed to. Some come a wee bit early, like Archie and his brother did, and others might come a bit late-"