When you deliver the Hebrew women, look at the birthstool; if it is a boy, kill him. –Exodus 1:16
I suppose it was no secret, Shifra mused, how
we came to save so many babies when
the ruler wanted them dead. Kill all the boys,
he’d said. We trained for many years to bring
forth life, watching our aunts and mothers
urge each woman to bear down, to breathe,
gaining the many skills we’d need. We slowly
learned to turn a head, shift a shoulder,
pull the legs of one in breach. We saved more
than we lost, and grieved for those we could not
keep alive. Given any chance, we would never
let a mother or a child die. God, as is God’s way,
took the credit. A story for another day.
But kill the boys? Yes, we told a lot of lies.
