Orthodox prayers for pregnancy and birth

Prayers for a healthy pregnancy and a safe delivery, for a mother and father to pray from the first months to the hour of birth.

Picture: William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Maternal Admiration, 1869

3 prayers and 1 to the saints

For a healthy baby

Prayer for a healthy pregnancy

Master, Lord Jesus Christ our God,Source of life and immortality,we thank You that in marriageYou have let us share in Your blessing and Your gift,for You have said, O Master,“Grow and multiply, and you will fill the earth.”

We thank You and pray:bless this fruit of our body, which You have given us.Show Your mercy to it,and give it life by Your Holy Spirit.Make its body grow in health and without flaw,and give it well-formed limbs.Sanctify its body, mind, heart and inward parts.Give this baby wisdom and the fear of You,and appoint a faithful guardian angelfor their soul and body.

Cover, protect, strengthen and keep our child in the wombuntil the very hour when You command them to be born.But do not keep them hidden in their mother’s womb,for Your hands have prepared them.You gave them life and breath.

O Lord Jesus Christ,we entrust our child into Your almighty hands.Lay the right hand of Your grace upon them,sanctify them with Your Holy Spirit,and renew them for eternal life,so that they may share in Your kingdom.Amen.

Traditional wording, 2007

Master, Lord Jesus Christ our God, Source of life and immortality,we thank Thee, that Thou hast enabled us in wedlockto become partakers of Thy blessing and gift,for Thou hast said, O Master,“Grow and multiply and you will fill the earth.”

We thank Thee and pray: bless this fruit of our body which Thou hast granted us,show Thy mercy upon it and enliven it with Thy Holy Spirit.Make its body to grow in health and without flaw and grant it well-formed members.Sanctify its body, mind, heart and inward parts.Grant this infant wisdom and fear of Thee;appoint a faithful guardian Angel for his soul and body.

Cover, protect, strengthen and preserve the child in our wombuntil the very hour when Thou didst command him to be born.But do not conceal him in his mother’s womb, for Thy hands have prepared him.Thou gavest him life and breath.

O Lord Jesus Christ, we entrust our child into Thine all-powerful hands.Place the right hand of Thy grace upon him,sanctify him with Thy Holy Spirit and renew him for eternal life,that he may be a partaker of Thy Kingdom. Amen.

A husband and wife thank Christ for the child they are expecting. They ask Him to keep the baby healthy and safe in the womb until the hour of birth, and to give the baby a faithful guardian angel.

Plain English by Wiser Walk, from the English copy of 2007, the oldest found. How the wording is made. Traditional wording: Author unknown, as posted on a family blog, Charming the Birds from the Trees, 2007.

This copy calls the child “him”. The plain wording says “them”, for a boy or a girl.

Where it comes from, and the original

As the birth draws near

Prayer for a safe delivery

O all-merciful Christ our God,look upon us and keep us, Your servants,from fear and from evil spiritsthat hope to destroy the work of Your hands.And when our hour and our time come,grant us deliverance according to Your grace.

Look upon us in Your mercy,and free Your servants from torment.Ease the hardships of our pregnancy,give us the strength and courage to give birth,and make it possible by Your almighty help.For this is Your wondrous creation,the power of Your might,the work of Your grace and mercy.Amen.

Traditional wording, 2007

O all-merciful Christ our God, look upon us and preserve us, Thy servants,from fear and evil spirits, which hope to destroy the work of Thy hands.And when our hour and time will come, grant us deliverance according to Thy grace.

Look upon us in Thy mercy and free Thy servants from torment.Alleviate the hardships of our pregnancyand grant us the strength and fortitude to give birthand enable this with Thine all-powerful help.For this is Thy wondrous creation, the power of Thy omnipotence,the work of Thy grace and mercy. Amen.

A husband and wife ask Christ to keep them from fear and to ease the pregnancy. When their hour comes, they ask for deliverance and for the strength and courage to give birth.

Where it comes from, and the original

For the baby in the womb

Fearfully and wonderfully made

For You formed my inmost being;You knit me together in my mother’s womb.

I thank You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.Your works are wonderful,and my soul knows it very well.

My frame was not hidden from Youwhen I was made in secret,woven together in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw my unformed body.All the days shaped for mewere written in Your bookbefore a single one of them had come.

Traditional wording, 1611

For Thou hast possessed my reins: Thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb.

I will praise Thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are Thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.

My substance was not hid from Thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.

Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in Thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.

David thanks God for knitting him together in his mother’s womb and for seeing him there before a single day of his life had come. Pray it with the child you are waiting for in mind.

Plain English by Wiser Walk, from the Hebrew, with the King James Version beside it. How the wording is made. Traditional wording: The King James translators, The King James Version, 1611.

Where the old wording says “covered me in my mother’s womb”, the 1917 Jewish Publication Society translation of the Hebrew has “knit me together”, as the plain wording does.

Where it comes from, and the original

To the Mother of God · Blessed is the fruit of your womb

Rejoice, O Virgin Theotokos

Rejoice, O Virgin Theotokos,Mary full of grace, the Lord is with you.Blessed are you among women,and blessed is the fruit of your womb,for you gave birth to the Saviour of our souls.

Traditional wording, 1894

Theotokos, Virgin,—Hail! Mary, full of grace,the Lord is with thee:blessed art thou among women,and blessed is the fruit of thy womb,for thou hast borne the Saviour of our souls.

The angel’s greeting to Mary, joined to the words Elizabeth spoke when both women were with child.

Plain English by Wiser Walk, from the Greek, with Robertson’s 1894 translation beside it. How the wording is made. Traditional wording: J. N. W. B. Robertson, The Divine Liturgies, 1894.

Robertson, like the Western prayer, says “Hail” where the Greek word means “rejoice”.

Where it comes from, and the Greek

Scripture for this

As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the bones are formed in a mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things.

Ecclesiastes 11:5 As no one knows how a child is formed in the womb, so no one understands the work of God, the Maker of all things.

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

Jeremiah 1:5 God tells Jeremiah that He knew him before He formed him in the womb.

⁴¹When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. ⁴²In a loud voice she exclaimed, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! ⁴³And why am I so honored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? ⁴⁴For as soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.”

Luke 1:41-44 The baby in Elizabeth’s womb leapt for joy when Mary greeted her.

A woman has pain in childbirth because her time has come; but when she brings forth her child, she forgets her anguish because of her joy that a child has been born into the world.

John 16:21 Jesus speaks of a woman in labour, whose anguish gives way to joy that a child is born into the world.

⁹Yet You brought me forth from the womb; You made me secure at my mother’s breast. ¹⁰From birth I was cast upon You; from my mother’s womb You have been my God.

Psalm 22:9-10 God brought the psalmist safely from the womb, and was his God from his mother’s breast.

⁸Then Manoah prayed to the LORD, “Please, O Lord, let the man of God You sent us come to us again to teach us how to raise the boy who is to be born.” ⁹And God listened to the voice of Manoah, and the angel of God returned to the woman as she was sitting in the field; but her husband Manoah was not with her.

Judges 13:8-9 Before Samson’s birth, his father Manoah prayed to be taught how to raise the boy, and God heard him.

Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.

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