Why do humans have such a problem having babies?

Question

are there any other species that have this problem? If not WHY?
I have heard that as the common man started walking upright, it caused the pelvis to squeeze together.

and by problem I mean the fact that people have to go to the hospital get drugs, and have doctors deliver the baby, and so on.

Answer 1

If you are in India, you won't ask this question. Even today most of the Indian women don't go to the doctor for a check up and deliver at home or sometimes in the fields etc. where they work.

So, too much of civilisation has robbed the woman of her natural instincts it looks.

Answer 2

Human delivery is very risky and for that fact delivery has moved into a hospital procedure. Yes, many pregnancies can be successful without the trip to the hospital, without the drugs, etc.

Delivery has become risky for humans as a result that our brain expanded during evolution. If you ever get a chance to get your hands on (through an anthropology department???) a female pelvis and fetal skull you'll quickly see that there is very small room for error as the fetal skull BARELY makes it through the pelvic girdle. That error does not include all of the tissues that lie ontop of those bones!

If the fetus stays in the womb past the normal gestation, or is large this can easily cause problems CPD (cephalo-pelvic disproportion). Even if the shoulders are too large can also cause issues (shoulder dystocia). Other issues come from the umbilical cord... because it is so cramped in the birth canal that if the cord is caught between the baby and birth canal, it could cut off circulation to the fetus. This will not necessarily rsult in death but other disabilities like cerebral palsy and brain damage.

Answer 3

> Why do humans have such a problem having babies?
Because it hasn't greatly impacted our ability to reproduce. When a woman has a baby, there are friends around to help with the delivery. It's been that way for millions of years.

> are there any other species that have this problem?
Some of the cetaceans, e.g. dolphins and porpoises. They also have assisted delivery.

Answer 4

I have seen on the baby shows on tlc that women were not meant to lie down and give birth. They are meant to squat or sit at least sit up (Hence the phrase "labor and drop baby"). It only makes sense to me, since gravity would aid in pulling the thing downward rather than have it resting against the back of the birth canal.

Answer 5

People somehow had babies for 100,000 years without doctors.

Human babies have very large heads, compared to other animals.

I read somewhere once, that one of the most important mutations that humans have, is the the pelvis can expand during childbirth. Otherwise, a lot more women would have died in childbirth.

Answer 6

We don't HAVE to do those things but we have adapted to doing them becaus ethey increase our the odds that we will have successful births. It would be interesteing to see the rate of non-reproducing females of certain animal species as well as the number of animals which die during delivery.

Working with mouse colonies it was not uncommon to have infertile mice or mice who had troubled deliveries and these are genetically well described strains.

Answer 7

you do not have to go to the hospital to have ababy and the pain is not unbearable. women have been doing it forever. i've personally done it twice. the babies heads are large yes, but they are also not fully formed in bone yet, so they can squish in the birthcanal. other animals also have labor and have to work hard to get the babies out, but some are just easier than others

Answer 8

its achieveable however the offspring and fertilization wont be triumphant for the duration of the technique so the introduction of a clean species would be a failure. people have a different style of genetics to different animals....its incompatible with different species different than the human race.....yet in assessment to donkey and horses the place they have an identical genes can sometimes produce an offspring referred to as a mule.. however the mule then can no longer valuable effectively reproduce simply by fact it has an uneven set of chromosomes... wish this solutions ur question

Answer 9

I am an MD. This is a very interesting question. The human brain is 4 times larger than the chimpanzee brain, but our adult bodies are only slightly

Answer 10

Obviously, you are a man, and have never had to deliver a baby before........ it is very painful, that is like asking, why would you be put under for an operation........ because it HURTS!!!!!!!!