I’m not taking about pushing out the baby, as humans evolved large brains for our size so it’s a tight squeeze.
But the contractions and cramping is very painful for women, do other animals experience similar pain but just remain quiet?
In: Biology
The contractions need to be stronger to force the big head out. It’s all part of the same trade off.
i listened to a racoon giving birth in our attic many years ago and it didn’t sound like she was having the greatest time doing it.
Like others have said, animals don’t like to broadcast their labor because it ups their risk of dying. Humans can even experience something called “Monkey Labor” that causes the laborer to go through contractions only during the night, when they can relax. It’s called Monkey Labor because the monkey parents labor at night when they go to the trees.
So I imagine other species have ways to split up their labor for the good of the species. Rabbits can reabsorb their litters if their biology decides it’s not a good time. And rabbit mothers can even decide to eat their young when they’re stressed.
Nature’s wild. They almost certainly experience painful labor and have adapted ways to keep safe during the process.
In addition to what others have said (humans having big heads), wild animals generally don’t try to express that they are in pain. It makes them a target for predators. Social animals can be kicked out of their groups for being sick or hurt. If a deer giving birth was screaming out or moving slowly due to contractions then it’d be easy for something like a wolf or coyote to come and take advantage of their weakened state.
It can extend to pets too, sometimes animals will look/act fine and turns out they have been hiding it and are much worse than they appeared.
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