as well as avoid deep penetration. after intercourse, women were urged to squat, sneeze, and cleanse the vagina before drinking something cold. if these combined practices failed in the prevention of pregnancy, recipes including small amounts of cyrenaic juice, diluted wine, leukoion, and white pepper were prescribed to induce abortion. abortions were uncommon, but in their few occurrences, were performed by the mother herself. the results for both mother and child were often fatal as most abortions were performed by plunging a dagger into the woman's vagina. because of this procedure, it was most common to carry a baby full term before performing the abortion. according to the hippocratic corpus, there were oral alternatives used to induce abortion such as chaste, tree, copper, and ferula species. plato explored the control that midwives perhaps had during this process: and furthermore, the midwives, by means of drugs and incantations, are able to arouse the pangs of labor and, if they wish, to make them milder, and to cause those to bear who have difficulty in bearing; and they cause miscarriages if they think them desirable.— plato: theaetus (excerpts) pregnancy there were many theories used to determine whether a woman was pregnant during antiquity. a popular method involved examining the vessels of her breasts. a second method involved sitting a woman on a beer and date mash covered floor and using a proportionality equation according to the number of times she vomits. another method included inserting an onion into a woman's vagina and determining whether or not it could be smelled from her breath. although there is little evidence as to whether or not any of these methods were confirmed medical procedures or if they were just folklore. labor and delivery ancient roman relief carving of a midwife attending a woman giving birth hospitals did not exist during antiquity so delivery took place in the home of the expectant mother with a midwife and other assistants to the midwife. religion played a major role during labor and delivery. women called upon artemis, a goddess with the ability to bring new life into the world as well as the ability to take it away. though she remained a virgin herself, it was said that she witnessed the pain of her mother during the birth of her brother, apollo, and immediately assumed the position of midwife. if a woman died during childbirth, her clothes were taken to the temple of artemis due to the fact the woman's death was attributed to her. if the birth was successful, the mother would make an offering of thanks by sacrificing some of her clothes to the goddess as well. herbs and other plants were used heavily in the delivery process, a practice also linked to religious belief. for example, a drink sprinkled with powdered sow’s dung was given to relieve labor pain, and fumigation with the fat from a hyena was thought to produce immediate delivery. most of these practices had little to no medical efficacy, but they did probably provide some placebo effect. despite the attempt to use science in advancing medical knowledge, the experimentation and teachings of the hippocratic corpus were not necessarily more effective than the traditional customs of midwifery. for example, the hippocratic writers believed that the womb could move out of place and cause health problems, and the prescribed treatment was to coax the displaced womb back into place using sweet-smelling herbs. soranus described three main stages of pregnancy: conception, which regarded keeping the male seed within the womb; pica, which occurred 40 days into pregnancy and included symptoms of nausea and cravings for extraordinary foods. during this phase women were also instructed to exercise and sleep more to build up strength as preparation for the labor process. the final stage of pregnancy was described as the labor and the process of delivery. in preparation for labor, the woman was advised to bathe in wine and sweet-water baths to calm her mind before delivery. her belly was then rubbed with oils to decrease the appearance of stretch marks, and her genitals were anointed with herbs and injected with softeners such as goose fat. the role of the midwife was very important during the process of childbirth and soranus described her role in great detail. for example, the midwife was to have certain tools to ensure a safe delivery, including: clean olive oil, sea sponges, pieces of wool bandages to cradle the infant, a pillow, strong smelling herbs in case of fainting, and a birthing stool. a birthing stool is a chair from which the seat has been removed. the midwife would ready her supplies as labor began. during the labor process, the mother would lie on her back on a hard, low bed with support under her hips. her thighs were parted with her feet drawn up. gentle massage was implemented to ease labor pains as cloths soaked in warm olive oil were laid over her stomach and genital area. against the woman's sides were placed hot compresses in the form of warm oil-filled bladders. during the actual birth, the mother would be moved to the birthing stool, where she was seated or would squat on two large bricks with a midwife in front of her and female aides standing at her sides. in a normal headfirst delivery, the cervical opening was stretched slightly, and the rest of the body was pulled out. soranus instructed the midwife to wrap her hands in pieces of cloth or thin papyrus so that the slippery newborn did not slide out of her grasp. caesarian sections a widely cited myth claims that the word “caesarian” possibly derives from the ancient roman ruler julius caesar, because it was believed that caesar was delivered through this procedure. the oldest reference to this myth is a passage from the suda, a 10th-century byzantine encyclopedia. the myth is a misinterpretation of a passage from pliny the elder's natural history, which mentions a "caesar" (one of the ancestors of julius caesar) being cut from his mother's womb. this practice is probably much older than julius caesar, and "c-sections", as performed by the romans, were done to rescue the baby from a dying or already dead mother, and were performed post-mortem. the fact that julius caesar's mother aurelia cotta lived for decades after caesar's birth makes this etymology highly unlikely. pliny mentions another more widely accepted possibility for the etymology of the word “caesarian”, claiming that it derives from the latin word caedere, meaning “to cut”. evidence suggests that jews in ancient rome successfully practiced c-sections on living mothers who were not in danger of dying. evidence of these procedures is found in several collections of ancient roman rabbis, the most famous of which is called the mishnah. greeks and egyptians did not perform c-sections, either post-mortem or on living mothers. however, greeks would have had at least some knowledge of the caesarian operation and the procedure involved. the greek god aesclepius was fabled to have been extracted from his mother's womb through this procedure. other than the evidence of jews practicing c-sections in antiquity (very little in ancient rome, even less in ancient greece), not much more evidence exists regarding caesarian-operation birth. one reason could have been that c-sections were not performed very often because of medical complications or superstitions surrounding c-sections. in early christian rome, c-sections were almost non-existent. loss of skill is a possibility for the lack of c-sections. infant mortality rates were high in antiquity, so c-sections certainly could have been useful. however, early christian doctors could have disregarded c-sections as a socially acceptable operation because of religious beliefs. disease, a perceived need for secrecy, and social discouragement could have also been factors that lead to the decline in c-sections among early christians in rome. almost no evidence exists for c-sections in the christian world until the 10th century. the lack of education for women and the social norm that women remained in the private sphere of life (as opposed to public) is theorized to also have contributed to a shortage of c-sections. midwives were the primary persons involved in the childbirth process. they did not record their medical practices in writing like soranus or galen. thus, c-sections could have potentially occurred on a fairly regular basis, and accounts were simply not recorded. death and childbirth greek attic funerary stele, showing a seated woman who died in childbirth bidding farewell to her husband, mother and newborn's nurse, c. 350–330 bc mortality was quite high in antiquity due to a few factors: a lack of sanitation and hygienic awareness, no understanding of micro-organisms, and a dearth of effective drugs. in the context of childbirth, however, maternal and infant mortality were exponentially raised compared to modern standards. this resulted from the toll childbirth took on women, and the increased risk of infection following labor. maternal maternal mortality figures are available only through comparison. maternal mortality is thought to be comparable with figures for similar, but much later, societies with more surviving records, such as eighteenth-century rural england, where maternal mortality averaged 25 per 1000 births. infant the question of infant mortality in antiquity is complicated by infanticide and exposure, neither of which reflect on medical ability during the period. the former does this through intentional death of the child, and the latter through abandonment, and possible death. these reflect instead on social conditions and norms. while valuable, this is not the information sought, and scholars having painstakingly attempted to eliminate the 'noise' from their inquiries. much like maternal mortality, it is difficult to construct actual figures of the infant mortality rate in antiquity, but comparisons have been made between ancient societies and modern non-industrialized societies. the figures suggest that they are comparable with those of modern industrialized societies to put them in perspective. while infant mortality is less than 10 per 1000 in modern industrialized societies, non-industrialized societies display rates from 50 to 200+ per 1000. scholarship using model life tables and assuming life expectancy at birth of 25 years produces the figure of 300 per 1000 for roman society.