Meaning & History
In Egyptian mythology she was a goddess of childbirth, and the creator of each child's 'ka', a part of their soul, which she breathed into them at the moment of their birth. Because she was responsible for 'ka', she was also associated with fate, and so would sometimes be associated with Shai. In ancient Egypt, women would deliver babies while squatting on a pair of brick, known as birth bricks, and because of this Meskhenet is sometimes depicted as a brick with a woman's head wearing a cow uterus, though typically she would just be depicted as a woman wearing a cow uterus.