Motherhood and Childbirth in Pharaonic Egypt
S. Ashoush, MRCOG and A. Fahmy, MD
Assistant lecturer and Lecturer, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology(Ain Shams University)
History of Medicine: ASJOG • Volume 3 • February (2006)
Abstract
For the ancient Egyptians, the prime purpose of marriage was to establish a family. Early marriage was considered desirable in order to have children while young. Several medical papyri have survived which deal with aspects of pregnancy and gynecological 
problems and although these are often obscure and some of the terms are not fully understood, they contain a lot of information. There were several tests to see if a woman was capable of conceiving. One of these was to place either an onion, or garlic in the woman’s vagina and note whether her breath smelled of it the next day. Other tests included milk from a woman who had born a male child mixed with other ingredients; if the woman who swallowed this vomited, then she was not sterile.
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