When it is said
Parents expecting a child pray it at home during the pregnancy, in their daily prayers or on its own.
The family who posted it online in 2007 tried to pray it every day.
The Russian Orthodox diocese of Great Britain and Western Europe published it in 2026 in the mother’s own voice, and suggests adding it to her usual prayers with the blessing of her spiritual father.
In the copies that are passed around, a prayer for a safe delivery follows it.
Where it comes from
No author known
Who wrote it?
No one knows who wrote this prayer or for which book. The oldest copy found is in English. A mother posted it online in October 2007 with the other prayers of its set, which her daughter’s godmother had given the family early in their first pregnancy.
Charming the Birds from the Trees, a family blog, 30 October 2007
A translation in print
The earliest printed copy found is a Romanian translation. It opens Pământ roditor, the Romanian edition of Fertile Ground, a book on pregnancy that the Orthodox Christian doula Laura Jansson wrote in English. The translation was printed in Iași in 2022 with the blessing of the Metropolitan of Moldavia and Bukovina.
Laura S. Jansson, Pământ roditor (Doxologia, 2022), the opening pages
Where English readers find it
In August 2026 the diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia in Great Britain and Western Europe published it with other prayers for mothers, at the instruction of Bishop Irenei. A PDF from St Philip Orthodox Church also carries it, in one form for the mother and one for someone praying for her, and the Orthodox Church in America’s diocese of New York and New Jersey links to it.
ROCOR Diocese of Great Britain and Western Europe, Prayers for a mother during pregnancy; OCA Diocese of New York and New Jersey, Pregnancy and Postpartum
What the words mean
Why the copies differ
The copies ask for the same things in slightly different words. The 2007 copy is the oldest found. It is in the plural, for a husband and wife who pray it together. The later English of the Russian Orthodox diocese in Britain and of St Philip Orthodox Church is in the mother’s own voice. So is the Romanian translation, which also leaves out the line asking God not to keep the child hidden in the womb.
ROCOR Diocese of Great Britain and Western Europe, Prayers for a mother during pregnancy; Laura S. Jansson, Pământ roditor (Doxologia, 2022)
The Scripture in it
God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and every creature that crawls upon the earth.”
Your hands have made me and fashioned me; give me understanding to learn Your commandments.
Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.