COUVADE

(from French couver, to hatch), the custom of the father going to bed at the birth of his child and simulating the symptoms of labour and childbirth. In an extreme form of couvade, the mother returns to her work as soon as possible after giving birth, often the same day, and waits on the father; the roles of the sexes are thus reversed. The term is sometimes applied to practices in which both parents of a newborn child are confined and similarly restricted. Some degree of restriction on the behaviour of the father at the birth of a child, however, is common among nonliterate and ancient peoples. In both ancient and recent times the full couvade has been observed on all continents and has been reported as recently as the early 20th century in the Basque country and in Brazil. Its social function seems to emphasize the role of the father in reproduction, although some writers have proposed that, by lessening the fear of what is felt to be the largely culturally induced pain of childbirth, the custom of couvade actually lightens the physical ordeal for the mother.