Egyptian wall relief, taken 1989

Shows two women seated on birthing stools with instruments alongside. Ancient egyptian women used a birthing stool of birthing bricks which raised the body sufficiently above the ground to allow room for the new-born infant. The stool or bricks were supposed to determine the child's destiny since Thoth, the ibis-headed god of the moon and 'lord of time' was believed to carve onto them the time of death. Families in ancient Egypt were not large - two or three children per household appears to have been the norm. There are no statistics regarding infant mortality but in 1952, it ws 193 per 1000 live births. Up to the 1980's, children under five accounted for about half of all mortality in Egypt, one of the world's highest rates. By 1990, infant death rate had dropped to 85 per 1000. Wall relief of the Graeco Roman Period (332 BCE - CE 395) from the temple at Kom Ombo in Southern Upper egypt, inner face of the outer corridor. This temple mostly dates from the Ptolemaic Period although New Kingdom (1570-1-70 BCE) remains have been found on this site. Tall box of medical / surgical instruments next to women on birthing stools. It includes a weighing scale (possibly for drug ingredients), cupping glasses, probes, sounds, spatulas, shears or scissors and galley pots or incense burners.