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Updated: June 25, 2025
The afterbirth child, Sayen, is believed to have lived "not very long ago", yet we find his life and actions quite similar to those of the heroes in "the first times", while his foster mother the alan takes the same part as did the alan of old.
The mother buries the afterbirth at the root of a plantain tree, which then becomes sacred until the fruit has ripened, when it is plucked to furnish a sacred feast for the family.
The Karo Bataks even affirm that of a man's two souls it is the true soul that lives with the placenta under the house; that is the soul, they say, which begets children. The Baganda believe that every person is born with a double, and this double they identify with the afterbirth, which they regard as a second child.
There is related the history of a case of a woman who was delivered of a child on a mountain during a hurricane, who took off her gown and wrapped the child up in it, together with the afterbirth, and walked two miles to her cottage, the funis being unruptured.
When the child has been thus brought forth, if it be healthy lay it aside, and let the midwife attend to the patient by drawing out the afterbirth; and this she may do by wagging and stirring it up and down, and afterwards drawing it out gently.
This cord is a part of what is called the umbilical cord, and it is this that joins the embryo to the mother. These branching structures are loops of blood-vessels, and they form part of the placenta, or "afterbirth." Through this cord the embryo receives its nourishment from the mother.
The custom is still pretty general in the canton of Aargau in Switzerland; an apple-tree is planted for a boy and a pear-tree for a girl, and the people think that the child will flourish or dwindle with the tree. In Mecklenburg the afterbirth is thrown out at the foot of a young tree, and the child is then believed to grow with the tree.
But if the afterbirth has come so far forward that it cannot be put back, and the child follows it closely, then the afterbirth must be removed very carefully, and as quickly as may be, and laid aside without cutting the entrail that is fastened to it; for you may be guided to the infant by it, which must be drawn out by the feet, whether it be alive or dead, as quickly as possible; though this is not to be done except in cases of great necessity, for in other cases the afterbirth ought to come last.
According to Willoughby, in Darby, February 9, 1667, a poor fool, Mary Baker, while wandering in an open, windy, and cold place, was delivered by the sole assistance of Nature, Eve's midwife, and freed of her afterbirth. The poor idiot had leaned against a wall, and dropped the child on the cold boards, where it lay for more than a quarter of an hour with its funis separated from the placenta.
It was the birth of twins enclosed in their secundines. The sac was opened and, together with the afterbirth, was laid over some hot coals; there was, however, a happy issue, the children recovering and living.
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