{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,30]],"date-time":"2026-09-30T06:55:41Z","timestamp":1790751341080,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":32,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,30]],"date-time":"2026-09-30T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1790726400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Glob. Women\u2019s Health"],"abstract":"<jats:p>\n                    This paper examines the cultural meanings and ritual practices surrounding pregnancy, childbirth, and early infant care in Bikaner, and their implications for maternal and newborn wellbeing. We conducted a qualitative ethnographic study based on in-depth interviews and short-term observations of household rituals with 33 participants, including 13 pregnant women, 11 recently delivered mothers, and 9 elder female family members. The findings reveal that pregnancy is widely perceived as a vulnerable and transformative phase that necessitates heightened care, protection, and collective familial support. Rituals such as\n                    <jats:italic>godbharai, chathiar,<\/jats:italic>\n                    and\n                    <jats:italic>annaprashan<\/jats:italic>\n                    are ceremonial practices that function as inherent mechanisms through which families express care, strengthen their kinship ties, and provide emotional reassurance to women during periods of bodily and social transition. Similarly, beliefs associated with the placenta, maternal blood, and postpartum seclusion further illuminate how women and families interpret and make sense of reproductive experiences through local cultural frameworks. At the same time, the study also identifies some long-held customs, particularly restrictive dietary norms, postpartum restrictions, and delays in seeking biomedical care, that may adversely affect maternal nutrition and neonatal health outcomes. Rather than framing tradition and biomedicine as oppositional, the paper argues for a culturally sensitive public health approach that recognizes the social and emotional significance of ritual practices while promoting safe and evidence-based maternal and newborn care.\n                  <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fgwh.2026.1915333","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,30]],"date-time":"2026-09-30T06:01:44Z","timestamp":1790748104000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["\u201cWe follow what our elders taught us\u201d: an ethnographic study of kinship, rituals, and reproductive transitions among women in the GaRBH cohort, Rajasthan, India"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"7","author":[{"given":"Sonia","family":"Maurya","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Public Health & Genomics Labs, Department of Anthropology, University of Delhi","place":["Delhi, India"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Gagandeep Kaur","family":"Walia","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"CHARD, TSB, Ashoka University","place":["Sonipat, India"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Subhash","family":"Kumar Jha","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Public Health & Genomics Labs, Department of Anthropology, University of Delhi","place":["Delhi, India"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Tripti","family":"Agarwal","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Environmental Health, Centre for Chronic Disease Control","place":["New Delhi, India"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ruchi","family":"Saxena","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Sardar Patel Medical College","place":["Bikaner, India"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Helen","family":"Lambert","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol","place":["Bristol, United Kingdom"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Vipin","family":"Gupta","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Public Health & Genomics Labs, Department of Anthropology, University of Delhi","place":["Delhi, India"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,30]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","year":""},{"key":"B2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"75","DOI":"10.1007\/BF00048538","article-title":"The shadow of life: psychosocial explanations for placenta rituals","volume":"9","author":"Davidson","year":"1985","journal-title":"Cult Med Psychiatry"},{"key":"B3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1155\/2023\/6676809","article-title":"The disposal of placenta among Indigenous groups globally: an integrative literature review","volume":"2023","author":"Moeti","year":"2023","journal-title":"Int J Reprod Med"},{"key":"B4","year":""},{"key":"B5","year":""},{"key":"B6","year":""},{"key":"B7","year":""},{"key":"B8","year":""},{"key":"B9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1644","DOI":"10.18203\/2349-3291.ijcp20173628","article-title":"Common ritualistic myths during pregnancy in northern India","volume":"4","author":"Choudhary","year":"2017","journal-title":"Int J Contemp Pediatr"},{"key":"B10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1094","DOI":"10.1136\/adc.2004.050591","article-title":"Hindu birth customs","volume":"89","author":"Gatrad","year":"2004","journal-title":"Arch Dis Child"},{"key":"B11","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"533","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1552-6909.1997.tb02156.x","article-title":"Traditional practices of women from India: pregnancy, childbirth, and newborn care","volume":"26","author":"Choudhry","year":"1997","journal-title":"J Obstet Gynecol Neonatal Nurs"},{"key":"B12","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"56","DOI":"10.5958\/0974-9357.2019.00089.8","article-title":"Prevalence of superstitions in Indian society in 21st century","volume":"11","author":"Sethi","year":"2019","journal-title":"Int J Nurs Educ"},{"key":"B13","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"116073","DOI":"10.1016\/j.socscimed.2023.116073","article-title":"Navigating and manipulating childbirth services in afar, Ethiopia: a qualitative study of cultural safety in the birthing room","volume":"331","author":"Hagaman","year":"2023","journal-title":"Soc Sci Med"},{"key":"B14","author":"Sihag","year":""},{"key":"B15","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e025395","DOI":"10.1136\/bmjopen-2018-025395","article-title":"Gestational route to healthy birth (GaRBH): protocol for an Indian prospective cohort study","volume":"9","author":"Gupta","year":"2019","journal-title":"BMJ Open"},{"key":"B16","author":"Nowell","year":"2017"},{"key":"B17","volume-title":"The Rites of Passage","author":"Van Gennep","year":"1909"},{"key":"B18","volume-title":"The Ritual Process. Structure and Anti-Structure","author":"Turner","year":"1969"},{"key":"B19","first-page":"216","volume-title":"After Kinship. Repr","author":"Carsten","year":"2007"},{"key":"B20","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"690","DOI":"10.1525\/ae.2001.28.3.690","article-title":"Cultures of relatedness: new approaches to the study of kinship","volume":"28","author":"Stone","year":"2001","journal-title":"Am Ethnol"},{"key":"B21","year":""},{"key":"B22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","DOI":"10.1525\/9780520935396","volume-title":"Birth on the Threshold: Childbirth and Modernity in South India","author":"Hollen","year":"2003"},{"key":"B23","author":"O\u2019Neil","year":""},{"key":"B24","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e91584","DOI":"10.7759\/cureus.91584","article-title":"Exploring positive deviant behaviors among high-risk pregnant women with different birth outcomes: a qualitative study from Palwal, India","volume":"17","author":"Maurya","year":"2025","journal-title":"Cureus"},{"key":"B25","year":""},{"key":"B26","first-page":"287","volume-title":"Fertility Behaviour: Population and Society in a Rajasthan Village","author":"Patel","year":"1994"},{"key":"B27","volume-title":"Social Learning Theory (Vol. 1)","author":"Bandura","year":"1977"},{"key":"B28","first-page":"81","article-title":"Village bodies: constitution, locality and affection in rajasthani kinship","volume-title":"Concepts of Kinship in South Asian Practice","author":"Lambert","year":"2000"},{"key":"B29","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"192","DOI":"10.1186\/s12884-016-0991-z","article-title":"Eating soup with nails of pig: thematic synthesis of the qualitative literature on cultural practices and beliefs influencing perinatal nutrition in low and middle income countries","volume":"16","author":"Raman","year":"2016","journal-title":"BMC Pregnancy Childbirth"},{"key":"B30","author":"Oe","year":""},{"key":"B31","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.24321\/2454.325X.202111","article-title":"A study on traditional beliefs and practices during the postpartum period among mothers at a district hospital in goa","volume":"7","author":"Vernekar","year":"2021","journal-title":"Int J Prev Curative Community Med"},{"key":"B32","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"247","DOI":"10.1177\/0038022920140204","article-title":"Experiencing pregnancy: negotiating cultural and biomedical knowledge","volume":"63","author":"Kant","year":"2014","journal-title":"Sociol Bull"}],"container-title":["Frontiers in Global Women's Health"],"original-title":[],"link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/fgwh.2026.1915333\/full","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,30]],"date-time":"2026-09-30T06:01:46Z","timestamp":1790748106000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.frontiersin.org\/articles\/10.3389\/fgwh.2026.1915333\/full"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,30]]},"references-count":32,"alternative-id":["10.3389\/fgwh.2026.1915333"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/fgwh.2026.1915333","relation":{},"ISSN":["2673-5059"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2673-5059","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,30]]},"article-number":"1915333"}}