Child Birth in Ancient Egypt
Childbirth was a dangerous portal between life and death (Davies & Friedman, 1999), it involved the spirit world and the mortal world, as demons joined forces to launch an attack on the mother and child, and the gods who were required to use all their divine power to deter them. (Davies & Friedman, 1999).
For a woman in Ancient Egypt, childbearing was more than life and death, As a mother, their position in society is established, and their social standing strengthened. (Strochlic, 2018).
An interesting side point is that the ancient Egyptians believed that the ability to create life was male not female. And this goes back to the fact that they could see it, they could see that through the act of sexual intercourse, and the male ejaculating that the next step would be that the female would be pregnant. And she would have a baby.
The Egyptians believed that when the mother was about to give birth; the demons (particularly female demons) had already been swarming outside. Music and revelry were thought to scare the demons away from the house (Fletcher, 2003).
To stop them from overrunning the house, the mother-to-be withdrew to a special place on the day of birth. Mother and child would remain in solitary confinement for about two days after delivery (Davies & Friedman, 1999).
On the day, if fortunate enough, the mother was attended by midwives. They would represent the goddess Isis. The position of a midwife was indeed a vital one. Many had been highly educated at Neith’s temple in Sais and could expect jobs within the palace or among the elite of the country (Booth, 2008). From a young age, girls would learn alongside the resident midwife.
As the trained midwives attended, the labouring woman kneeled or squatted on individual birth bricks in a ‘birth-box’. Examples of these have been found at places like Armarna. It was a rectangular design made of mud brick, partly or wholly covered, except for an opening on its long side. It was approached by series of steps and was typically plastered and painted with the peculiar representations of two formidable deities, the god Bes and the goddess Tawaret (Davies & Friedman, 1999).
Bes was a Dwarf-god who in appearance was hideous but was benevolent. In tandem with Taweret, one of his was the most crucial contribution to Egyptian life was as a guardian during childbirth. Bes is defined as having a charming personality that manifests itself through music and entertainment. (Hart, 2005).
Taweret, the Hippopotamus goddess, was the protectress of women in childbirth. Her name means ‘the great one’. Her well-disposed nature made Taweret a great favourite with ordinary Egyptians (Hart, 2005). It was also thought that the Seven Hathors presided over the birth of a newborn. (Gill, 2003)
On the day a spell was said to free the newborn from their mother’s womb, so as to ‘to shield a newborn on the day of their birth,…’. Examinations were conducted to evaluate if the baby will live or die, and other chants were made to regain the mother’s health.
When the newborn emerged from its mother, (as documented in the Ebers Medical Papyrus), if the newborn cried “ni” it would live, but if it cried “ba” it was going to die (Fletcher, 2002/2009).
After the child was born, the newborn would be washed cleaned with warm water, and once the flow of blood from the umbilical cord had stopped and an obsidian knife could be used to cut it. (Gill, 2003). The mother would also be given the umbilical cord, which she would keep for the rest of her life.
The mother chose the baby’s name after giving birth, which might be taken from a statement stated during the birth, from the father’s career, background, or linked to god names.
At times, some mothers-to-be didn’t survive. In 2018 the Italian-American Joint Archaeological Mission found the burial of a pregnant woman she was about 25 years and was in her final pregnancy months and about to give birth, as the structure of the fetus is in the area of the tub and has already settled in the birth position (Davies & Friedman, 1999). The mortality rate of women during childbirth and the postpartum period was really quite high. According to investigations on mummies of young women; they succumbed to infections, haemorrhages, eclampsia, foetal or placental retention.
References
Booth, C. (2008). Ancient Egypt.
Davies, W., & Friedman, R. (1999). Egypt. London: British Museum.
Fletcher, J. (2009). The Egyptian Book of Living & Dying. Duncan Baird. (Original work published 2002)
Fletcher, J. (2003). Ancient Egypt. London: Duncan Baird.
Gill, A. (2003). The kingdom of the Pharaohs brought to life. Harper Collins Entertainment.
Hart, G. (2005). The Routledge Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses. New York: Routledge.
Oakes, L., & Gahlin, L. (2006). Ancient Egypt. London: Hermes House.
Perry, C. (2005). Egypt : land and lives of the pharaohs revealed.. Willoughby, N.S.W.: Global Book Pub.
Strochlic, N. (2018). This ancient Egyptian woman may have died in childbirth. Retrieved 25 April 2020, from https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/2018/11/ancient-egypt-pregnant-woman-burial-archaeology/
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