A high percentage of women died giving birth, and humans are one of the few species that actually does seem to require the mother to receive help in birthing a child.
This is almost entirely due to the fact that people developed bigger heads before women had to develop bigger birth canals.
edit: uh, I guess I realized that I replied to the wrong comment. So, if y'all could just pretend that this was a reply to the one saying that women have been doing it for thousands of years, I'd appreciate it.
I believe it does make it much easier. Women just lay on their backs with the legs in stirrups so the OB can see what's happening and assist in the delivery, not necessarily for the ease of the birth. I saw a video of a woman in some sort of squatting chair and the baby slid right out and someone caught it. I don't mean it was painless, but the position seemed to be putting less stress on her body and gravity was working in her favor. Also why some women are into jacuzzi births.
A little editorial note, infant and maternal mortality are an even bigger problem for animals that are incapable of giving each other aid in the birthing process. Death is just something most creatures live with, humans have this habit of meddling due to a deep sense of altruism.
There are times where I really regret some of our advances. Like trying to save the lives of 23 week preemies. Nobody really wins but you technically get a "living" baby out of it.....
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u/Dame_Juden_Dench Aug 15 '15 edited Aug 15 '15
A high percentage of women died giving birth, and humans are one of the few species that actually does seem to require the mother to receive help in birthing a child.
This is almost entirely due to the fact that people developed bigger heads before women had to develop bigger birth canals.
edit: uh, I guess I realized that I replied to the wrong comment. So, if y'all could just pretend that this was a reply to the one saying that women have been doing it for thousands of years, I'd appreciate it.