Just curious

[natural_mama89]

I was reading an article on the Midwifery Today website about an Amish birth and I have a question for any birth professionals on here that have attended births for the Amish or that knows a lot about them. The article says that the Amish don't tell their children where babies come from or when their mother is expecting a baby? How do they do that? Wouldn't the children wonder why their mom's belly is getting so big? How do they find out where babies come from eventually? They would have to learn at some point. This is just an interesting cultural thing that makes me wonder.

[Veritaserum]

I have a hard time believing that. Surely they must tell them something....

[Zoo Loo Naturals]

Living so close to the land and practising animal husbandry...? Kids are smart! But religious belief systems sometimes have tight restraints...

I'll have to go read that, I'm fascinated by the Amish.

[SublimeBirthGirl]

If that's true, it's pretty...um, nothing I can say in a nice way.

[blissful_maia]

I have attended a few Amish births, and this wasn't the case. The Amish are pretty private in general, and don't really talk about their pregnancy unless asked. But if one of their children asked a question, they would answer succinctly and honestly. HTH.

[MsBlack]

I've worked with the Amish...and can tell you that first of all, there are various subsets of Amishness. Some are more conservative than others, some are downright liberal--like the New Order Amish here, who do use electricity and telephones, and are fans of self-education even tho, like the rest of the Amish, they don't school past 8th grade. But even if 2 communities both call themselves New Order or Old Order or some other common thread name, each community will have it's own norms on any topic.

I worked with an Old Order community where no, they did not tell even the older kids about babies on the way. You just didn't ask about such things as something concerning your mother's body--indecent! Besides, the way they dress, pregnancy is seldom as obvious as the way we "english" dress. And if the pregnant woman is your mother, well, she only gradually changed shape over the months, right? What's to notice? When babies were born--with children out of the house entirely--the parents would simply tell the other kids "look what Jesus brought us". Period.

It does seem very strange to me, almost cruel and unnatural...but this is the way they have chosen to live and it does have it's upside in certain ways (the lifestyle in general). Mind you, NOT enough upside imo, that I'd marry into it (if such were possible) or anything!