Scientists: why are women today much harder to give birth than their distant ancestors
'12.10.2019'
Source: Air force
Childbirth in modern women often passes painfully and lasts quite a long time. A woman in labor often needs help.
So why is the birth of a person’s closest biological relatives, such as chimpanzees, easier, and they last only a few hours, and the female does not need any help? Tells Air force.
To answer this question, scientists tried to find out how they gave birth to human ancestors.
Two million years ago, it was relatively easy to give birth to human ancestors. This was revealed during the study of ancient fossils.
For Australopithecus sedib, who lived 1,95 million years ago in what is now South Africa, the birth process was relatively easy, anthropologist Natalie Lauditsina, a research participant, said.
“The fetus's head and shoulders had ample room for even the tightest maternal birth canals to pass through,” she said.
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These days the situation has changed. Due to the size and shape of the modern human pelvis (a compromise necessary for walking in an upright position) and the large size of the baby's head, the fetus comes out with difficulty.
During childbirth, the baby has to turn several times in the birth canal.
By studying the pelvic bones of our ancient humanoid relatives, scientists can roughly understand what the genera were like at the core of the human family tree.
But it cannot be said that childbirth has invariably become more difficult as a person evolved.
According to Lauditsina, when studying the fossils of a female Australopithecus afar, named Lucy, it turned out that her birth was more difficult than that of Australopithecus sedib, because in her case the fetus was more closely in the birth canal.
At the same time, Australopithecus afar lived a million years earlier.
“Many believe that the evolution of childbirth is the transition from easy in monkeys to difficult today. But we see that this is not so, ”Laudicina assured.
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According to her, it is difficult to determine when childbirth became difficult and went into the modern phase, because each fossil from the genealogical tree of a person shows its birth problems.
And even today, childbirth in women is different: for some, they pass relatively easily and quickly, while at the same time others give birth in torment for more than 20 hours.
