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The article presents an exploration into the traditional Swedish cultural practices and rites of churching, baptism and swaddling. Introductory comments are given highlighting the presence of several rituals and customs surrounding childbirth and early infancy from the 18th and 19th centuries. The traditional practices surrounding the churching of a mother who has recently given birth, the godparent-selection and baptism of a child, and the use of swaddling clothes for infants are each discussed in-depth, outlining the institutional meaning and common cultural understandings of the customs.

ABSTRACT: This study analyzes godparenthood networks' in Helsingborg, Sweden, in the period 1688-1709, from a gender perspective. Special concern is devoted to the social relations underlying the godparenthood of women and men, respectively, with the focus on women. In Helsingborg, in the period 1688-1709, godparent relations formed a gender-specific social-hierarchical network pattern in which women played a prominent part. Married women, if not kin to the parents, were chosen as godparents primarily from social strata higher than the biological parents, thus expressing the vertical relations. Married men were chosen primarily from the same social groups as the parents, expressing horizontal social relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT: If we want to understand the social relations of the urban family in the nineteenth-century town, it is necessary to study different family patterns, particularly social networks, or sociability, as it is sometimes called. Whom did different social groups mingle with? Whom did they regard as their equals and friends? By studying such questions it is possible to enter deeply into the lives of different social groups and their relations to other groups or classes in society. By doing t his we can avoid simplifying nineteenth-century social structure, and obtain a deeper understanding of the complexity of social relations. This article focuses on this problem by studying family relations created through the ceremony of baptism-that is, networks that were created through children and families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]