I have been enjoying Grayson Perry's new TV series 'Rites of Passage'  and the most recent episode was on 'Birth' comparing premature baby birth with the rites of passage of children in Balinese culture. Now I have largely ambivalent feelings about Grayson and his ego really can grate and get in the way but the research and the emotional sense is overwhelming and over all we end up liking him

Grayson Perry continues his exploration of the importance of ritual in our lives. Bringing a child into the world is surely one of the most consequential things we can do, but how should we celebrate this life-changing moment?
Grayson Perry begins his exploration of rituals for birth on the Indonesian island of Bali.
In Chelmsford in Essex, he meets the nursing team at the neo-natal unit of Broomfield Hospital as they battle to keep premature babies alive. Grayson finds a super-high-tech environment seemingly a million miles from the villages of Bali, but with the same values of communal care at its heart. With the help of some of the new parents who he meets on the ward, he devises a ritual to celebrate and thank the nurses for their dedication and love for the babies in their care.

Things we learned:

Prem babies as a rule don't like being stroked, they like being held, hugs.

Unattended a baby's heart rate can be varied and unreliable.

If Mum places a hand on the baby's head and one in support of the feet, the baby's heart rate stabilises. The Senior Paediatrician said that whilst the science provides medical care the medicines and the machinery if he can ensure that a mother is smiling and happy the baby’s ’healing’ will be quicker and almost automatic (sic!)

Balinese babies are not to touch the ground (earth) for 105 days (3months plus) but are passed from hand to hand, arms to arms, the social village, the extended family care for the child and hug and hold her or him until the ceremony of becoming takes place where the baby is felt to be then a part of the 'real' world. It's feet being ritualistically placed into a bowl of earth, songs sung, a gamelan plays and the ritual is loud and extensive to mark the rite of passage into the real world