Birth and children are highly valued in Jewish Morocco. A sterile woman is likened to a dead tree, a childless man is counted as lifeless and the crown of existence is the birth of a male child to carry the name of his family.  Joy fills a home when a child is born and from there it spreads to the community at large. In fact celebrations begin at earlier stages of pregnancy, as early as conception is announced, although birth opens the gate to larger scale feasts, some well anchored in Biblical and Talmudic traditions.

Pilgrimage
Sterile women and men went on pilgrimage to holy sites to rejuvenate stale unions. Those were the clinics where infertile couples were impregnated and where male offspring took place in wombs where only female broods were born.  When a child was conceived, the pregnancy was announced to the sound of cries of joy (zegharit). From that moment, every precaution was justified to carry the pregnancy to full term.

Amulets
Pregnancy is considered a blessed matter. Most women conceived at a very young age, sometimes as early as the age of 13, although rabbinical rulings discouraged such practices. Women gave birth easily, in most cases in the privacy of their own homes with the assistance of midwives.

Craving
Pregnancy is believed to last nine months: three months to satisfy craving, three months to gain weight and three months to rest and prepare for birth. Efforts are made to satisfy expecting women’s cravings in order to prevent any birth related complications.

Baby Showers
Before modern day diapers became a fashionable commodity, people made their own on the occasion of baby showers. In Morocco, baby showers were the time when ripe women feasted on a couscous laced with herbs that made hearts burst of desire! But desire was an urge to be conquered. It was an occasion to tell tales and celebrate conception and birth. Proximity to pregnant women is considered a blessing and is somehow conducive to fertility.