Pregnancy and birth in ancient egypt

The Egyptians loved children and every birth was a source of joy, especially if it was a boy.
The pregnancy was lived by the woman with a great responsibility, she prepared following a certain diet, she applied oils on her bowels to keep her skin elastic and she was protected by the goddess Tuaret together with god Bes.
The goddess Hequet, represented as a frog, was the protector of the new life, in fact the pregnant women used to wear amulets that represented a frog.
When the labour began, the gravid, went to a building called “Mammisi” (the birth place) that was a part of the temple where the woman in labour was assisted by expert women of her family or by an obstetrician.
The ideogram that represents the verb “to give birth” (mesi) is represented by a woman crouched down with a baby who is being born.
Ho did the Egyptian woman give birth? Sitting on a peforated chair, or crouching down with her feet laying on briks, while the obstetrician knelt down ready to take the baby, there were no doctors and surgical tools weren’t used except a ossidiana knife to cut the umbilical cord.
Unfortunately there was a high risk of mortality and for this the delivery was accompanied by magic formulas, rituals, invocations to the gods so they would reduce the labour pains and drive away any possible complications.
Many divinities presided the birth: Iside and Nefti protected the gravid, Meskhenet cared about the baby’s name, Khnum modelled the limbs and offered health to the baby. Around the cradle there were also the seven Hathor that gave gift, positive and negative, to the baby.
After the delivery the woman followed a purifying ritual fo fourteen days and the went back to her life in the community.