The mummified remains of a teenage girl who died during childbirth in ancient Egypt have been analyzed by researchers, revealing that the young mother was in the process of giving birth to twins when she died. Unfortunately, the birth took a negative turn when the first baby's head got stuck during its exit, resulting in the deaths of both babies, as well as the mother.
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The young woman have been between 14 and 17 years old when she died and was originally discovered in 1908 in the El Bagawat in the Kharga Oasis in Egypt. Notes from the time reveal that the mummy was found with a fetus and placenta between her legs, leading to the conclusion that she died from complications during childbirth.
Reexamining the mummy after more than a century, the authors of a new study performed computed tomography (CT) scans of the body to determine exactly what might have gone wrong. To their surprise, the scans showed the presence of a second fetus in the woman's abdomen, indicating she was pregnant with twins.
More shocking revelations came when investigators found that the head of the baby found between the woman's legs was still in the mother's pelvis, leading them to suspect that the fetus had been decapitated during birth.
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The most likely explanation for this horrific outcome is that the baby was born upside down – meaning it came out feet first.
According to the authors , this can lead to “traumatic decapitation of the fetus” in rare cases, with this example being one of those horrific incidents.
As for the second fetus, the researchers suspect that the undertakers may not have known that the woman was pregnant with twins and simply failed to remove it from her body before mummification. As the mummy's diaphragm dissolved, the headless fetus may have moved from the uterus to the thoracic-abdominal space.
This examination of the mother and her children at birth reaffirms how dangerous pregnancy, labor, and birth were, especially during this period.
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The study – which includes images of the mummy – is published in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology.
Source: iflscience
