Baby Season!

There's babies everywhere! I'm not talking about the baby season that happens in nature because its spring but rather about the the babies the women in my town are having. As I have mentioned before, it is customary for people to get married in the summer. Its the warmest time of the year (weddings are usually outdoors) and just when the days are the longest. Last summer I attended a multitude of weddings and will be doing so again this summer, inshallah. Most of the girls that got married last summer were coming by the clinic in october and november because they were pregnant. There were literally about 5 to 7 women coming in every other day about pregnancies. (it was great seeing so many women going in for prenatal checks)
Its been just about nine months since all these prenatal visits...so its baby season!
My sitemate and I have been to 2 baby ceremonies already in the last month and expect to attend more as some of our friends in town come closer to their time of delievery. The baby ceremony is called "siba" and usually consists of a big lunch for all those that know the family. Its similar to the idea of a baby shower but it happens seven days after the birth rather than prior to it. People take gifts (baby clothes or sugar cones...for tea) and generally socialize and play with the baby :) This is also when the baby gets its official name. I think that they wait for this celebration until the week after the baby's birth for religious reasons as well as for health reasons. I'm not well informed about the religious reasons so i'm not going to attempt to broach that topic but I think I can say a bit about the health reasons. It seems logical that we would wait to celebrate the birth of a child once they are actually born. I mean, isn't it kind of bad karma to assume the baby will be born? Maybe thats just an issue here where infant mortality is actually sometimes a problem. Anyways, the sibas have been good and I'm glad the babies I have seen all look quite healthy. Inshallah, the rest will be just as healthy.