Jokes aside, there have been cultures where women went into labor and would deliver by themselves away from the tribe. It’s been a while since I read about it, but iirc if she returned without the newborn is was either unacknowledged or at minimum just accepted as her decision. Imagine having a still birth or a child with extreme physical deficiencies prior to modern medicine. I do remember thinking when I read it that it surely resulted in women not returning, too, because childbirth can be risky even with a team of professionals.
Also wet nurses have been a thing, and the practices with that range from understandable to horrific - think wives of slave owners not wanting to breast feed, so they force a slave that’s given birth recently take on the duty, usually as a priority over their own child. Course, there’s always been women who couldn’t produce milk, so it has been done altruistically, too
Jokes aside, there have been cultures where women went into labor and would deliver by themselves away from the tribe. It’s been a while since I read about it, but iirc if she returned without the newborn is was either unacknowledged or at minimum just accepted as her decision. Imagine having a still birth or a child with extreme physical deficiencies prior to modern medicine. I do remember thinking when I read it that it surely resulted in women not returning, too, because childbirth can be risky even with a team of professionals.
Also wet nurses have been a thing, and the practices with that range from understandable to horrific - think wives of slave owners not wanting to breast feed, so they force a slave that’s given birth recently take on the duty, usually as a priority over their own child. Course, there’s always been women who couldn’t produce milk, so it has been done altruistically, too