Pregnancy and birth were both considered hazardous due to the complications that could occur that might put a woman or her unborn child at risk Among the prenatal care provided by midwives include periodic massages examinations attending the delivery and tending to both new mother and child following the birth in the week of bed rest Paul Lois Benjamin The Maya Midwife as Sacred Specialist A Guatemalan Case American Ethnologist Vol 2 No 4 p 707