Childbirth Postures within the Egyptian Mammisis

Abstract

Graeco-Roman mammisis display acute archaeological evidence of the childbirth process, which demonstrates the various postures of childbirth taken on in Egypt that launched from kneeling on the bare ground to squatting on birth bricks, which got replaced by the sitting posture, either on thrones settled on royal beds, or on royal beds directly, and eventually arriving to squatting on the birth chair. It also illustrates well the expressed body language through the depicted birth postures within the mammisis.