Foster mothers came to Mecca to feed children. It was the custom at that time in Makkah that families send their children to live for a while with a nurse who lived in the desert. This was healthier for their bodies to be around a natural environment instead of living in the city. They preferred that the fathers of the children they took care of were still alive. Although Muhammad's father was dead, Halimah took him just eight days after he was born. He grew up in Hudaybiyah, then in Medina before he was returned to his mother, Aminah bint Wahb.