I must give birth like the Hebrew woman.

Maternal mortality in Nigeria is one of the highest in the world, largely due to the unsafe quality of our health care system. But there are still countless (avoidable) deaths like this story, that arise simply from mere ignorance. Hosea 4:6 — my people perish for lack of knowledge.

The Myth of the Hebrew Woman

“The midwives said to Pharaoh, Because the Hebrew women aren’t like the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them” — Exodus 1:19

From the midwife’s statement, and assuming it true, all we know about Hebrew women is: (i) they are vigorous; and (ii) they give birth before the midwife arrives. So on vigor, maybe the Egyptian women are less vigorous than the Hebrew, or the Egyptian women are not vigorous at all. In any case, we’re unable to determine where Nigerian women fall on this “vigorous” spectrum.
On the second point, one can infer that the Egyptian women did not give birth before the midwife arrived though there are several ways to unpack it, the midwives could have arrived late at the scene of the Hebrew women delivery for a myriad of reasons — maybe the Hebrew women lived far or the midwives just took their sweet time in getting there.

But why even bother with the minutiae of the statement when if you read the verse in context it is clear that the midwives lied.
They told a big fat lie because they did not want to be part of Pharaoh’s evil scheme to murder male babies. If I were a midwife then, I would have lied too, and more confidently — like saying the Hebrew women don’t even make any sounds during labour or that they just pull out the baby from under them while casually walking in the park.
The Israelis still exist till date. It is unlike other Biblical countries that are nowhere to be found or no longer in existence. The women in Israel still undergo labour pains like any other women in any part of the world.

So you are probably as confused as I am as to how reference to this scripture is now propagated as “vaginal childbirth versus surgical childbirth”; and of course, that vaginal is better. And this ignorant notion continues to spread like wild fire.

There is no such thing as giving birth like a “Hebrew woman”. Vaginal childbirth is not betterthan surgical childbirth. So as often as we can, let’s educate one another that the most important thing about childbirth is the well-being of the mother and baby.
Pastors have so much role to play here. They need to let women know that holding such beliefs of delivery like the hebrew women is an erroneous one.

Contribution: https://medium.com/@yilusina/i-must-give-birth-like-the-hebrew-woman-131608ca3e4e