Abstract:

The birth event has been a transitional phase in which human cultures have taken great care and assigned various meanings throughout the history of humanity. Turkish societies have also given the birth a great importance and have developed a wide range of beliefs and practices around the birth event. Much of these practice sarerelated to the treatment of the mother and child. In this study, beliefs and practices for treatment purposes were taken into consideration among the ones related to birth event in Gaziantep. Throughout the study, firstly the treatment samples in the pre-natal, natal and post-natal periods in Turkish folk culture, then the beliefs and practices related to birth which were compiled from the research area Gaziantep were given. These samples were examined in three stages as pre-natal, natal and post-natal titles. The pre-natal pregnancy is addressed in two parts as eliminating infertility / getting pregnant and pregnant women’s avoidances / practices. In the title of the natal period, the beliefs and practices around the birth preparation and the birth event were given. The post-natal period includes the traditions about the puerperium and the avoidances of puerperium, the puerperal fever called albastı and kırk basması and for tiesrenovation and the applications about the child’s survival, tooth extraction, walking and talking. In this study, it was determined that treatment purposed beliefs and practices related to birth were blended with the effects of ancient Turkish culture, pre-Islamic belief systems and Islamic religion and continued their existence in Gaziantep.

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