Regarding a normal pregnancy, how can we talk about niddah and zivah periods during the pregnancy before child birth? Ovulation ceases during that time span.
Thank you.
Leonard Singer, Overland Park, KS USA
Niddah and Zivah are not defined by blood emanating from ovulation but rather from any blood issuing from the uterus. Thus a woman becomes Niddah during the childbirth process from the bleeding, even though it is not ovulation but blood from the placenta and the womb (Dam Koshi)
The fact that we continue to count the periods of Niddah and Zivah are because they are irrespective of ovulation. The Torah assumed that every 18 days (7 Niddah plus 11 Zivah) the blood can be deemed Niddah and before that (during the 11 days) it is Zivah but this does not refer to ovulation but rather to different kinds of blood from the uterus. (This according to Rambam who maintains that one counts these days during pregnancy as well. Ramban has a different approach)
Yoel Domb