As soon as a child was born it was washed, and rubbed with salt (Ezek. 16:4), and then swathed with bandages (Job 38:9; Luke 2:7, 12). A Hebrew mother remained forty days in seclusion after the birth of a son, and after the birth of a daughter double that number of days. At the close of that period she entered into the tabernacle or temple and offered up a sacrifice of purification (Leviticus 12:1-8; Luke 2:22). A son was circumcised on the eighth day after his birth, being thereby consecrated to God (Genesis 17:10-12; Comp. Romans 4:11). Seasons of misfortune are likened to the pains of a woman in travail, and seasons of prosperity to the joy that succeeds child-birth (Isaiah 13:8; Jeremiah 4:31; John 16:21, 22). The natural birth is referred to as the emblem of the new birth (John 3:3-8; Galatians 6:15; Titus 3:5, etc.).

Noah Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Language

1. (n.) The act or fact of coming into life, or of being born; -- generally applied to human beings; as, the birth of a son.

2. (n.) Lineage; extraction; descent; sometimes, high birth; noble extraction.

3. (n.) The condition to which a person is born; natural state or position; inherited disposition or tendency.

4. (n.) The act of bringing forth; as, she had two children at a birth.

5. (n.) That which is born; that which is produced, whether animal or vegetable.

6. (n.) Origin; beginning; as, the birth of an empire.

7. (n.) See Berth.