GIVING BIRTH
IN ANCIENT EGYPT
STARTING LIFE AT THE BANKS OF THE
NILE
Mirjam Nebet Egypt
 Sources
Our knowledge
about the circumstances and habits connected to childbirth in Ancient
Egypt is not very clear. We know that the mortality rate was very high
both for women and infants, and we know that many spells and prayers to
special deities were aimed at help and protection in this precarious
situation. But when a new child was about to enter life along the Nile,
what was really happening among the women concerned? Whether in the royal
chambers or simple mud huts, the references are vague. Some information
can be found in fragments of stories and myths together with illustrations
of the 'Divine Birth' rituals carved on the walls of Late Period Birth
Houses, so called 'mammisi', at certain temples. The best rendition of a
birth is given us in the Westcar Papyrus from the Middle Kingdom. Other
sources are found in medical texts, which in part deals with treatments
for women in and after childbirth, as well as tests for
pregnancy.
Depictions
Depictions which deal with the actual
practicalities of giving birth are very rare, to say non-existent. Of the
seven hieroglyps for woman and her occupations in Gardinerīs sign list,
five are related to giving birth and nursing; but texts elaborating the
process are lacking. There are also reliefs in the Mammisi at Ptolemaic
temples showing the 'birth' of a 'divine child', i.e. a king. These
depictions are of course rich in symbolic and ritual content but say
nothing about practical conventions surrounding the
event.
Mammisi - Birth House
The word 'mammisi' is an artificial
Coptic word, meaning 'birth-place' or birth house. It was invented by
Jean-Paul Champollion in the 19th Century, to denote this specific
structure attached to certain Late Period temples (Philae, Edfu, Dendera).
These mammisi were a kind of chapel where rituals ascertaining the divine
heritage of the king were carried out. The only persons allowed to be
present at these rituals were the king and certain members of the
priesthood. These depictions show the birth of gods and the kings, and
were not intended for use by ordinary people.
Deities associated with Childbirth
While Het-Hert (Hathor) from ancient
times appears as a universal cow goddess, her primary function was as
mother and protector of Heru (Horus). Later she became associated on the
mundane level with all women and their needs, which trait she from the
Middle Kingdom onwards shared with Aset (Isis). By time these two
goddesses merged into the same deity and were then both appealed to in
matters of childbirth and the caring of children.
Also Aset originates as
the symbolical mother of the king but when the myth of Wesir (Osiris)
gained importance during the Middle Kingdom, her popularity as a
protective goddess for women and children in general began to spread. From
having been a deity emerging in the royal funerary cult as the source of
the 'Living Horus' (i.e. the new ruler), her cult developed and gained
popularity among common people, especially women, first across Egypt, then
in the Late Period all across the Mediterranean and far beyond. In the
process her original fierceness seems to have been watered down until she
appears as a benevolent mother deity for everyone.
The Seven Hathors were seven cow deities,
sometimes considered seven aspects of Het-Hert, whose task it was to
predict the destiny of the newborn child. Depictions of these can be found
in tombs, and in the Book of Going Forth By Day.
Bes is a collective name for several dwarf
deities, which were thought to protect women and children during and after
birth. His grotesque features was carved on household items and
particularly on bedroom furniture. He is often seen holding the Sa symbol
or a knife in his raised hand, prepared to scare off evil.
Taweret, in the figure of a pregnant
hippopotamus, with a tail of a crocodile and arms and legs of a lion, is
another deity connected to the protection of pregnancy and childbirth. She
too carries a knife to ward off evil. Statuettes and amulets of her were
very popular among pregnant women.
Heqat, or Heqet, the frog goddess, is also
associated with fertility and giving birth, and amulets and scarabs
inscribed with her image were also used by pregnant women. First
mentionings of her in connection with childbirth occurs in the Middle
Kingdom.
Meskhenet is a personification of the so-called
birthing bricks upon which women squatted during childbirth. She helps to
protect the delivery, and further predicts the future of the
infant.
Khnum is said to create the bodies of humans on
his potter's wheel and to breathe the life force into the child. A
detailed account of the procedure is found at the Temple at Esna,
describing how he orders the bloodstream to cover the bones, the skin to
enclose the body and how he after that was done, creates the respiratory
and the food digestion system.
The Westcar Papyrus
The story of the woman Reddjedet from the
Westcar Papyrus, is the most detailed account we have of a childbirth. It
describes how the woman, who is miraculously giving birth to triplets
fathered by Re, uses a portable birthing-stool, with a hole in it for the
baby to pass through. There are also five deities; Aset (Isis), Nebt-Het
(Nephtys), Heqet, Meskhenet and Khnum, all disguised as female musicians,
arriving to assist her. The papyrus says that they 'sealed' the room with
her (and them) in it and:
"Aset placed
herself before of her, Nebt-Het behind her, Heqat hastened the birth."
The papyrus further
reports that Aset said:
"Be not strong
(user) in her womb, in this your name as a powerful man (user) indeed
(word play on the name Userkaf). The child rushed forth into her two
arms as a child of one cubit (i.e. 52 cm)..."
Then it goes on to say that the goddesses cut
the navel cord, washed the child and laid it on a pillow of cloth.
Meskhenet then told the fortune of the newborn and Reddjedet purified
herself with a purification of 14 days. More detailed descriptions of the
proceedings than that are lacking.
Medical Papyrii
There is no known word for 'midwife' or
gynecologist etc., and no evidence for physicians being regularly or
singularly involved in childbirth. However medical spells and remedies
exist which were used to predict fertility and pregnancy or to help in
childbirth and there are many medical papyri which include sections for
gynaecology with spells and treatments for female ailments and childbirth.
The oldest of them is the Kahun papyrus, which dates from about 1800 BC,
and which is probably a copy of an older text. Its first two-three pages
state 17 prescriptions and instructions of a gynaecological nature, as
well as methods for assessing pregnancy. The Kahun papyrus can therefore
be called the first textbook on gynaecology.
Papyrus Ebers
There is also the Papyrus Ebers, dating
from 1526-1505 BC, giving a group of remedies like: 'For speeding up the
childbirth of Aset'. The spell tells the deities what disasters will
happen if Aset fails in giving birth when her time has come. Another one
is '... a contraction of the uterus' and 'To cause a woman to give to
earth'. The remedies are taken by mouth or placed in the vagina, applied
to abdomen or bandaged around it.
'Birth Bower'
Ostraca found at Deir-el-Medina show a
'birth bower' resembling an airy tent decorated with garlands and festive
bowers, which might have been built for the purpose of a woman giving
birth there. However it is believed this had a more symbolical than
practical meaning, or that perhaps this bower was used by the more wealthy
people and town officials.
There are also fragments of plaster
showing that this bower was included in decorations of some of the houses
in the village. It seems to be built of columns of papyrii form, decorated
with garlands of convulvulus vines and with the roof made of matting.
There are also ostraca showing a woman either sitting on a stool or a bed,
nursing her newborn. When seated on a stool she wears only a collar and a
girdle around her hips, her hair is bound up on top of her head and falls
down in thick heaps. She is attended by young women who are dressed the
same way. When seated on a bed she usually wears a linen dress and a wig
with an ointment cone on top of it. Female servants often hold mirrors and
wash her feet, and cosmetic jars are sometimes included.
'Birth Box'
In the front room of almost half of the
workmens' houses at Deir el Medina, an enclosed platform was found. This
platform is believed to have served as a so called 'birth box'. The
construction is a rectangular mud brick one, partially enclosed but with
an opening on its long side. A couple of steps are leading up to it. There
are traces of plaster which was painted with images of Bes and
Tawaret.
The Placenta
The placenta was likely of a special
significance. There is early evidence of the royal placenta depicted on a
standard for the king in the Old Kingdom. In the 5th Dynasty, the reliefs
in the Sun temple of King Niuserre show this standard being carried by a
priest of Aset, the mother the Living King in the form of Heru (Horus). On
the Narmer Palette, the placenta is probably depicted carried on a pole in
procession in front of Narmer. Since these early times it remains
associated with the king all throughout Egyptian
history.
With non-royal women the placenta as it was
thought to be directly linked to the childīs life, was probably buried
either under the threshold of the house or thrown into the Nile to ensure
that the child survived. Other speculations are that as it was rich in
iron, a piece of it might have been eaten by the mother or even offered
the child.
After Birth
The story of Reddjedet in the Westcar
Papyrus tells that after giving birth she paid the midwife-deities in corn
and 'cleansed herself in a purification of fourteen days'. It seems that
the woman as well as the child was entitled to some rest and even
seclusion after the delivery, which is practiced still today among certain
peoples. Other female occupants of the household shouldered her part of
the work so that the mother could occupy herself with the
newborn.
Naming
The dangers to a newborn child were many.
It could die of sudden fevers, diseases of different kinds and few people
could afford to pay a doctor, and the lack of effective medical remedies
made life hazardous.
The child was named by the mother
immediately after birth as having a name was considered highly important
for the deceased person to gain an eternal life. Probably the name had
been chosen in advance together with the father. Non-royal persons had
mostly only one name, but it was quite common to chose the name after a
favorite deity, local or not, or even after a royal
person.
Long names were common, and so were also
nicknames. Family names did not exist, instead a person was defined as
being the son of a certain person; i.e. Amenhotep, son of
Hapu.
Breast-feeding
Children were breast fed up to three
years. Breast milk was a highly nutritious additive to regular food and
its contraceptive qualities were most likely not overlooked. A nursing
woman was a sign of successful womanhood, and there are frequent
depictions of this. There are also medical papyrii saying that the quality
of the milk should be tested before given to the child. If the milk
smelled like dried manna, it was good, but if it smelled like fish it was
bad. Motherīs milk, especially from a woman who had given birth to a boy,
was considered having high medical value, both for feeding children, for
treating burns and for fertility.
Wet-nurses
Mothers who for some reason were unable
to breast-feed and those of noble origin, resorted to a wet-nurse. Due to
the high death-rate for birth-giving women as well as for newborns, they
were often needed, and a wet-nurse was well-paid and had a good status.
Parents could draw up legal papers for a wet-nurse who had to bind herself
to nurse a child for certain years. During this period she could not
herself risk a pregnancy as it would jeopardize her lactation. In the
higher social layers, and especially the royal family, the position as
wet-nurse was coveted, being one of the most influential that a non-royal
woman could ever hope for. These royal wet-nurses were often married to
high court officials. In the Roman days the importance of royal wet-nurses
diminished.
Sources:
-
John F. Nunn, Ancient Egyptian Medicine
Henri Frankfort, Kingship and the Gods
Gay Robins, Women in Ancient Egypt
Joyce Tyldesley, Daughters of Isis
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