Childbirth according to plan: child birth time has changed in the USA
'21.07.2017'
Source: npr
“Children are born around the clock. They are born when they are ready! I have heard this proverb the entire time I was pregnant with my daughter in 1993. As it turns out, Sarah was born (with a little kick from Pitocin, a synthetic version of the hormone oxytocin) at 6:41 pm Saturday. Just two generations ago, most babies were born around the clock. Now, however, most babies born in the United States are born Monday through Friday, from 8 am to 18 pm, ”writes Barbara King in article for npr.
The author tried to figure out why such changes occurred.
Many women want to plan their birth in advance. As reported by Mark Fishetti, employee Scientific American magazine, 50% of births in the United States are now either ordered by the mother and her doctor or for medical reasons - the vast majority of those 50% fall into the first, voluntary category.
“Women prefer to give birth during bankers' hours. This change in time of birth is an intriguing departure from our long evolutionary history as primates. Most monkeys give birth at night when a social group has come together, probably to reduce the risk of predators. Two years ago the newspaper The Washington Post published evidence that when babies are born at home (a rare occurrence in the US, less than 2% of all births), they also tend to be born at night, ”the author said.
Barbara consulted with biological anthropologist Julienne Rutherford at the University of Illinois at Chicago for her views on day shift in hospital birth models in the United States. In an email, Rutherford said: "The change in childbirth during the daytime may reflect a peculiar human nature, social childbirth."
In her opinion, data on infant survival are needed in order to properly think through any future evolutionary consequences of this shift. Her wish list includes a study that will measure the change in the diameter of the head of surviving newborns. She believes that natural selection can be weakened among the population, where babies' heads do not always pass through the mother's birth canal. In turn, this may lead to the appearance of larger children.
“What we know for sure is that the birth rate in the US is on the rise (not to say it's a good thing), and many families are making choices about the timing of childbirth rather than letting nature take its course. The days of childbirth on Saturday are shrinking, ”the author summed up.
