After delivery, the midwife stayed on for four more days to monitor the mother's milk supply. This was an essen-tial precaution, as weaning would not take place until the childwas two years or old-er, and the Aztec had no animals whose milk could be used as a substitute. 
During those four days, practical tasks were carried out alongwithpious rituals. The placenta was buried in a corner of the home. If the newborn was a boy, the umbilical cord was given to a warrior to bury in enemy territory. Since the main occupation of Aztec men was war, this ritewas supposedto fill the future warrior with strength and courage. 
The relevant passages from the Iluehu-etlatolli, a collection of sa7ings, speeches, and advice from Aztec elders, was quot-ed soon after birth, including the words of welcome with which a midwife and grandparents should greet a newborn boy: "Your trade and skill is war; your role is to give the sun the blood of your enemies to drink and feed the earth, Valtecuhtli, with the bodies of your enemies." If the newborn baby was a girl, the umbilical cord was buried next to the fireplace to make her a goodwife and mother. She was urged to The to the home what the heart is to the body!' 
The naming ceremony was a key rit-ual in Aztec society. It was the solemn duty of the father to inform the priests of the day and time of birth, and they in turn consulted the Tonalarnatl, a kind of almanac structured around the 26o-day Aztec year, to discernthe most appropri-ate name. The purpose of this, Sahagin records,"was to predict his good or ill for-tune based on the qualities of the sign he was born under." The Aztec regarded the last five days oftheyear as abad omen, so parents did all they could to ensure chil-drenborn on those da.ys were named after that period ended. 
Cradle to Grave
Despite the care provicledthroughout the pregnancy, childbirth was often lethal. If, in spite of all the effort made, the mother died inlabor, she was regarded as a warrior who had died in combat. Shewas buried in a special temple at twilight, and her soul traveled to the house of the sun
If the fetus was stillborn, "the mid-wife took a stone knife, called an itztli, cut the dead body up inside the mother and removed it in piecee a grisly proce-
dure that nevertheless "saved the moth-er from death?' The Aztec believed ba-bies who died during labor traveled to a place called Chichivalcuauhco, where a wet-nurse tree would feed them with its milk. There they would remain, until the gods sentthemback to be born of another mother, and the cycle of birth and death turned once more.
—Isabel Bueno 
