Exodus 1:17-19

17-19. But the midwives feared Feared the (one only) God rather than Pharaoh, and would not execute his murderous mandate . Their excuse was plausible, for childbirth is usually easy with women of the pastoral class, especially in the East . Burckhardt and Tischendorf relate that the Bedouin mother seeks a spot by a spring or stream, and bears and dresses her infant without aid . She even sometimes alights from her camel to bear her child, which she washes in the sand and then resumes her place .