Stillbirth and Ancient Egypt

Once upon a time, there was a woman who lived in Egypt.  She gave birth prematurely to a son who was born still.  He had ten fingers and toes, a gently curving spine, rounded hips.  He was missing bones from the top of his head — anencephaly — and it affected the formation of his brain.  She mummified the baby and  wrapped him in linen and cartonnage, and turned him into a hawk through the magic of paint.

I don’t know why my heart ached so much reading about this mother and the discovery that a tiny hawk mummy didn’t contain a bird but instead the remains of a little boy who died between 23 and 28 weeks gestation.  We didn’t invent infertility; it has clearly existed for millennia.  But there is something that ties us together, cleaving that woman to our community.

The care she took as her heart ached.

Choosing to release him in bird form.

Not knowing that thousands of years later, we would learn about her and her loss; that her son would continue to impact the world.

It’s a really moving discovery.