International Journal of Contemporary Pediatrics | September-October 2017 | Vol 4 | Issue 5 Page 1644 International Journal of Contemporary Pediatrics Choudhary R et al. Int J Contemp Pediatr. 2017 Sep;4(5):1644-1647 http://www.ijpediatrics.com pISSN 2349-3283 | eISSN 2349-3291 Original Research Article Common ritualistic myths during pregnancy in Northern India Ramesh Choudhary 1 *, Sunil Gothwal 1 , Swati Nayan 2 , B. S. Meena 2 INTRODUCTION The development in science and technology has helped us to overcome the superstitions associated with pregnancy to some extent. But, still many of us follow them even though we realize that these lacks scientific evidence. As in many other things in life, numerous traditions have been created. They often have nothing with science. They are usually prejudices that became part of local culture. 1,2 Cultural competence in the provision of postpartum care is essential for nurses in the healthcare world of the 21 st century. We planned this study to gain an understanding of traditional postpartum practices for women and babies, and to investigate the factors influencing such practices. Midwives and nurses should discuss these findings and their implications when they educate new mothers and their families about contemporary methods of postnatal maternal and infant care. METHODS It was a cross sectional descriptive observational study. It was conducted at a tertiary care hospital in Northern India in Jaipur City. The study population was women who have delivered in last 3 days either vaginally or by lower segment caesarian section. Information was collected by direct face to face interview with mother and family members and responses were noted down. The fixed numbers of question were asked. The language of communication was Hindi. Local language was also used, if the mothers had difficulty in communication through Hindi. Questions were open ended and responses falling into preset possible ABSTRACT Background: The development in science and technology has helped us to overcome the superstitions associated with pregnancy to some extent. Objective of present study was to record information about common ritualistic myths during pregnancy and after baby birth. Methods: It was a cross sectional observational study conducted in a tertiary care center. Information was collected from 200 admitted women who delivered in last 3 days with direct questions to mother. Results: Total 180 (90%) women were following the ritualistic myths. Mean age and mean parity was 30.1 years and 2.8 respectively. Sixty five percent women were belonging from rural background. Religion distribution was as follows 144 Hindu, 40 Muslim and 16 were others. Prevalence of the myths was 136 (94.4%), 32 (80%), 12 (75%) in Hindu, Muslim and other religions respectively. An inverse relation was observed between education level and acceptance of myth. Conclusions: Ritualistic myths during pregnancy and after birth were more common with low literacy, rural background and in Hindus. Keywords: Baby birth, Pregnancy, Ritualistic myths 1 Department of Pediatrics, 2 Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, SMS Medical College, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India Received: 01 March 2017 Accepted: 28 April 2017 *Correspondence: Dr. Ramesh Choudhary, E-mail: drrameshchoudhary @yahoo.co.in Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2349-3291.ijcp20173628