9 Prayers for a Healthy Pregnancy

By Elicia Brown

In my fourth month of pregnancy, my stomach suddenly began to rhythmically convulse in a manner I imagined could only precede labor. I panicked. I called my doctor, my husband, my mother. I was only able to sleep that night, however, after I whispered the words from a tattered sheet a friend had given me, the translation of a Yiddish pregnancy prayer.

Following are a few of my favorite prayers for a healthy pregnancy culled from sources modern and centuries-old--nine in all, one for each month of gestation.

Healthy Pregnancy: Prayer to Prepare for Conception...

Elicia Brown is a freelance writer in New York. She also has a monthly column in The New York Jewish Week.

1. Prayer to Prepare for Conception

Like The Radiance Of The Moon

Ruth Lazare

My God, Creator of beauty and purity
Molder of body and soul,
I am the woman now standing before You in prayer.
Purify me at brooks of water
Anoint me with myrrh and incense
Renew light within me like the radiance of the moon.
My Lord,
My womb which You have given me
Is pure;
Place a soul in my midst.
Then may my home be whole before You,
And my insides be lined with love.

A modern Israeli prayer to be recited before a plunging into the Jewish ritual bath, but can be used at other times as well. From “A Jewish Woman’s Prayer Book” by Aliza Lavie. Copyright © 2008 by Aliza Lavie. Excerpted by permission Spiegel & Grau, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

3. Prayer for the Night of Conception

On the Evening The Couple Wishes To Conceive

Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin

My God and God of my mothers and fathers, may it be Your will that You be gracious to us tonight. Make tonight a night of peace and joy, tenderness and loving, a night on which my beloved and I conceive a child. Hold us close in Your embrace, God, just as we hold each other tightly. Remember us as You remembered Sarah. Care for us as You cared for Rebecca. Tend to us as You tended to our mothers, Leah and Rachel.

Choose from Your sacred treasury of souls, and give us a child who is wise and caring, healthy and secure. May we be blessed with a pregnancy that lasts, with a birth that yields life, and a child who gives us joy.

May our family grow through the years, and through Your kindness, may we be a blessing to all who know us.
May the words of our mouths and the desires of our hearts please You, our Strength and our Deliverer.

Prayer from “Tears of Sorrow, Seeds of Hope: A Jewish Spiritual Companion for Infertility and Pregnancy Loss” 1999 by Nina Beth Cardin. Reprinted by permission of Jewish Lights Publishing, www.jewishlights.com.

4. Prayer for an Easy Pregnancy

Prayer For An Easy Pregnancy

“May it be your will God, my Lord and the Lord of my ancestors, that you will ease for me the difficulty of pregnancy, and that You will increase my strength, and the strength of my fetus. And that you will save me from the fate of Eve, who was punished, “I will increase your suffering and distress, with suffering you will give birth to children.” When my time to give birth will arrive, I will give birth easily, and without any pain, and the baby will go out into the air of the world easily, and without any harm to me or to the baby. And the baby will be born with good luck [mazal tov], into life, peace, health, wealth, and honor, and will find grace in Your eyes and in the eyes of all your creations, and through this child will be fulfilled the verse: “There will not be a mourner or a barren woman in your land, I will give you a full life.”

Lines excerpted from a prayer that originally appeared in the Yiddish Zultsbach prayer book, circa 1825.

6. Prayer Upon Admission To the Hospital

Upon Admission To the Hospital

Master of the universe: I believe with perfect faith that my salvation is in Your hands and that no mortal doctor has the power to heal anything. May it be Your will to save me from this mighty danger, and help me so that the doctor who comes to deliver me at the proper time may be Your faithful emissary; and that no mishap occur on his account, heaven forefend, and that I may give birth with good fortune and with no injury either to me or to the fetus.”

Prayer from a Yiddish prayer book of unknown date; translation from “A Jewish Woman’s Prayer Book” by Aliza Lavie Copyright © 2008 by Aliza Lavie. Excerpted by permission Spiegel & Grau, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

9. Prayer Upon Nursing for the First Time

Prayer To Be Said When She Nurses For The First Time

Dr. Giuseppe Cohen, translated by Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin

May it be Your will, Lord my God and God of my forebears, that you provide nourishment for Your humble creation, this tiny child, plenty of milk, as much as he needs.

Give me the disposition and inclination to find the time to nurse him patiently until he is satisfied. Cause me to sleep lightly so that the moment he cries I will hear and respond. Spare me the horror of accidentally smothering my child while I sleep. God forbid.

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable to You, my Rock and my Redeemer.

This material is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. Please contact the publisher for permission to copy, distribute or reprint. From an Italian collection of 18^th century prayers for married women written by Dr. Giuseppe Cohen “Out of the Depths I Call To You,” translated by Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin, published by Jason Aronson, 1995.