You’re not gonna believe why child mortality was so high.

Also, the (often) improper diets of pregnant ladies, especially among the poorer classes of society, that meant a lack of essential vitamins and minerals, put mothers too at great risk. To compound the issue, matters got out of hand during the periods when the annual Nile floods did not materialize. With the mother dead, the newborn faced an uphill task in surviving the odds. Feeding a motherless child was one of the greatest difficulties that the ancient Egyptians encountered. The milk of livestock – cows and goats – was the only substitute to natural mother’s milk. How many could afford it? This is where the aunts or other close family members of the baby stepped in to carry out this function and keep the baby well-fed.

It was also the food.