Women were at particular risk of mortality through childbirth; married women were expected to bear children as a primary duty to the family, and to the state. The death rate among newborns and young children was very high – around 1 in 4 births, or at worst, up to 50% mortality before age 5; dietary deficiencies hindered growth and immunity among the poor, whether slave or free. Unwanted newborns were sometimes deliberately killed if patently "unfit to live". Others, perhaps deformed, or of doubtful paternity or born, unwanted, to impoverished or enslaved parents, might be exposed "for the gods to take care of".