Charles Ellicott Commentary Exodus 1:16

"and he said, When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them upon the birth-stool; if it be a son, then ye shall kill him; but if it be a daughter, then she shall live." — Exodus 1:16 (ASV)

Upon the stools. —Literally, upon the two stones. It has been suggested that a seat corresponding to the modern hursee elwilâdeh is meant. This is a “chair of a peculiar form,” upon which in modern Egypt the woman is seated during parturition. (See Lane, Modern Egyptians, vol. iii. p. 142.) But it does not appear that this seat is composed of “two stones;” nor is there any distinct evidence of its employment at the time of childbirth in Ancient Egypt. The emendation of Hirsch—banim for âbnaim—is very tempting. This will give the sense, “When you look upon the children.”