Zeus "gave birth" in the sense that he's the opening through which Athena escapes - Athena ALWAYS has a mother, Metis, a goddess which Zeus swallowed because he feared she'd give birth to a god more powerful who'd overthrow him.
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Hesiod, Theogony 924 ff :
"[Zeus] he snatched her up in his hands and put her inside his belly for fear that she might bring forth a thunderbolt stronger than his own"
Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1. 20 :
"Zeus slept with Metis, although she turned herself into many forms in order to avoid having sex with him. When she was pregnant, Zeus took the precaution of swallowing her"
We don't know how, we just know what Zeus did, it's imagined she was small / shape changing, which is what gods can do (Peleus wrestling Thetis to marry her).
Metis is not the only god Zeus swallows by the way, there's also Phanes who was the king before Kronos or Ouranos or Nyx; in the Orphica, Theogonies Fragment (from the Deveni Papyrus) :
"Zeus, when from his father the prophesied rule and strength in his hands he took and the glorious daimon . . ."
"the god [Phanes] who first sprang forth into the Aither (Light).
Kronos (Cronus, Time) who did a mighty deed to Ouranos (Uranus, Sky), son of Nyx (Night), who became king first of all; following him again Kronos, and then Zeus the contriver. "
Either Prometheus or Hephaestus are the "midwives" in that they open Zeus' skull; it makes sense in that Prometheus makes mankind -and Hephaestus is the maker of Pandora.
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"[Zeus] he snatched her up in his hands and put her inside his belly for fear that she might bring forth a thunderbolt stronger than his own"
"Zeus slept with Metis, although she turned herself into many forms in order to avoid having sex with him. When she was pregnant, Zeus took the precaution of swallowing her"
"Zeus, when from his father the prophesied rule and strength in his hands he took and the glorious daimon . . ."
Kronos (Cronus, Time) who did a mighty deed to Ouranos (Uranus, Sky), son of Nyx (Night), who became king first of all; following him again Kronos, and then Zeus the contriver. "