Pregnancy was a major hazard for women in the ancient world. According to Tod Brisbane (2007), the odds were that at least one in every 60 pregnant women would die. This is difficult to comprehend in the developed world today, where the chance of dying in pregnancy is one in 10,000. There are documented statistics from Roman Egypt that establish the ancient mortality rate. Interestingly, similar odds prevailed throughout the world until obstetrics became a medical speciality, about 200 years ago. Similar high mortality rates are also seen in other, far later societies that have a greater number of surviving records. For example, in 18th-century rural England, maternal mortality averaged one in every 40 births. Sadly, such statistics remain true today in Sub-Saharan Africa, in areas where there is no modern medical core.
The birth process
The passage of a baby through the human birth canal is a very complex process, which involves turning, and either flexing or extending the head to keep the widest part of the foetal skull in the widest part of the pelvis at each level during descent. This was not fully understood until about 100 years ago. It is paradoxical that the ancient Egyptians understood how to manipulate a calf to deliver it, regardless of whether the animal came out leg first, buttocks first, or head first. However, there is no evidence they understood the need to manipulate a human baby to facilitate birth. The only thing an attendant could do in the event of a stalled birth was to grasp whatever was available and pull. The result was often disastrous for the baby, but might have saved the life of the mother.
Divine help
The swnu (physicians) were not involved with pregnancy, and there were no midwives until very late in Egyptian history (even then, they had little to offer except emotional support). The best way to ensure a safe birth was to enlist the aid of the gods, and certainly to avoid offending any of them, although priests and priestesses, like physicians, had no involvement in childbearing. Two of the most important gods offering protection to pregnant women were Taweret and Bes (see AE 141). The third – and critically important – divinity was Meskhenet, the goddess of the birth bricks and the actual birthing process.
Time to do it right