The so-called "For Delayed Birth" is an Old English poetic medical text found in the manuscript London, British Library, Harley 585, ff.
The text is in fact a set of prose instructions which include a series of short poems which should be recited as part of one or more rituals.
[2] However, 'this charm is perhaps misnamed, because it deals, not with delayed birth as such, but with the inability of the wifman [woman] for whom it is written to conceive at all, or to bring a child to term without miscarriage.
'[3] As edited by Elliott Van Kirk Dobbie but with long vowels marked with acute accents, the text runs:[4] Se wífman, se hire cild áfédan ne mæg, gange tó gewitenes mannes birgenne and stæppe þonne þríwa ofer þá byrgenne and cweþe þonne þríwa þás word: þis mé tó bóte þǽre láþan lætbyrde, þis mé tó bóte þǽre swǽran swǽrbyrde, þis mé tó bóte þǽre láðan lambyrde.
Se wífmon, se hyre bearn áfédan ne mæge, genime héo sylf hyre ágenes cildes gebyrgenne dǽl, wrý æfter þonne on blace wulle and bebicge tó cépemannum and cweþe þonne: Ic hit bebicge, gé hit bebicgan, þás sweartan wulle and þysse sorge corn.