Read an extract from Monday's Child by Steve Roud

Do young mothers still sing lullabies to gentle their infants into sleep? The answer is probably “if they were sung to in their turn”, for then the gentle music of Bye Baby Bunting and Golden Slumbers Kiss Your Eyes is heard and learnt through the blood, ready to be handed on by that sleeping baby in years to come.

Yet what if, never sung to, you still cradle your newborn, instinctively making rocking movements and meaningless lulling and shooshing sounds? Are folk memories more powerful than single family traditions? I hope so. For some of us would regard the gradual loss of rhymes such as Baby Bunting and of traditional parent-child lap games (for example) as a cultural tragedy on a level with the extinction of native species. As Iona and Peter Opie wrote: “In Britain and America, and wherever the English word is spoken, the children become joyful and wise listening to the same traditional verses.”

Steve Roud points out in Monday's Child is Fair of Face that while some assert that the first human songs must have been the chants of men returning from the hunt, or hymns to some primitive god, “a more likely candidate ... is the homely scene of a mother soothing her baby to sleep”. Indeed. In their 1951 Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes the Opies quote a text from 1398: “Nurses use lullabies and other cradle songs to please the wits of the child” (my translation) and remind us that the earliest soothing word is the “lullay”, first written down in 1372. Little silly rhymes and babbling speech patterns have endured through centuries and have a beauty far beyond their surface.

Roud's utterly delightful book deals with more than lullabies and nursery rhymes, although they are a natural part of any work on the traditions surrounding pregnancy, childbirth and new parenthood. The subtitle is ... and Other Traditional Beliefs About Babies and Motherhood, although the more enlightened young father may well protest at exclusion.

A folklore and folksong specialist, Roud has produced a guide to superstitions and customs, explaining where they come from and why they arose, and to what extent they still survive. These are interspersed with rhymes and ditties. He arranges his material logically, from conception through birth, choosing a name, daily routines, first teeth and so on.

There are a multitude of customs and beliefs here, as well as - indirectly - some wise advice buried in old wives' tales. For example, we no longer believe that cats will deliberately set out to “suck the breath” out of a baby, yet, he says, “we know that pet hairs can be harmful to an infant's breathing”.

Why, when you go to buy a baby-congratulation card is it likely to include a picture of a stork? It turns out that this is a tradition we have colonised from Dutch and German folklore. On the other hand, the belief that babies were found under gooseberry bushes was common in rural areas at the beginning of this century. It does seem extraordinary that, when families had little privacy and children observed the behaviour of animals, the truth about where babies come from should have been such a secret.

Before the days of universal healthcare women helped each other through childbirth, just as they still do throughout the developing world. Local midwives, mothers and other female relatives guarded the mysteries and perils of pregnancy and birth, so it is easy to see why an ignorant, frightened young mother-to-be, aged around 18, would have listened hard and believed everything they said. The precisely named “old wives' tale” was her only reassurance, for good or ill.

So alongside useful knowledge (that of herbal remedies, for example) grew up myriad superstitions - and Roud gives us many, from the timing of birth (always lucky to be born on a Sunday) through choosing a name (keep it secret) to what to do about washing babies (whisky on the head a good idea in Fife!).

This fascinating book, perfect for bedside dipping, is the ideal present for grandparent and new parent alike, but its significance lies deeper than mere curiosity.

We may have machines that weigh and scan, we may be able to find out the sex of the unborn child and shop in stores full of expensive baby accessories, yet the whole business of birth is as awe-inspiring as ever.

And the transforming love that lucky parents feel as they croon instinctive nonsense is the most ancient and miraculous thing of all.

Monday's Child is Fair of Face, by Steve Roud
Random House £10

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