Doesn’t it make more sense to keep them in the womb until they have functioning senses?
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Evolution has only one rule: whoever dies with the most grandchildren wins. Note that I say “grandchildren” here: it’s not enough just to have a bunch of kids unless many of them survive to have their own children.
There are a number of ways to achieve this, with respect to pregnancy, and different species have stumbled upon different routes. You’re right that longer pregnancies would mean more functional newborns, but it would also mean larger babies, which are harder for the mother to carry and more dangerous during the birth process, *plus* you can’t carry as many of them. Some creatures, like primates and equines, found that tradeoff to be worthwhile. Others, like rabbits and cats, didn’t. It’s just different routes to the same goal.
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