Depending on the circumstances of their labor, someone who gave birth might be moving around okay (walking) pretty soon after, but I’m wondering if animals are able to run/hunt/go on as normal right away?
In: Biology
Childbirth is taxing for animals too, but most of the problems with human birth is our huge heads, our heads are really, really difficult to give birth too. Animals have much smaller heads which makes it easier for them to give birth, and whatever damage they suffer is generally less debilitating than ours, but it also depends on the animal, a chicken dosent have the same problems a deer will have for example, an egg dosent have hoofs that can tear the deer for example.
Also animals have an intense survival instinct and will try to run even if they are severly hurt so its difficult to say, a zebra will run with its guts hanging out, a human wont.
birth is hard on many other animals, and predators will watch for prey animals that recently gave birth.
Part of why humans seem to have it so rough is our upright posture and our giant heads make childbirth an especially damaging and painful process as most of our birthing machinery evolved in a quadrupedal animal with a small head. With that said, Hyenas have it even worse where around a tenth of first time mothers die, and nearly a quarter of their babies die.
Every animal has its own strategies. Many pray herd animals are born walking and basically have to immediately stay with the herd or else they’re left to get eaten. Predators can typically afford to have useless babies because they can protect them until they’re ready to fend for themselves. Humans are among the riskiest births because we have large heads for large brains, and we also adapted to walk upright with a very efficient gait. Both infant and maternal mortality must have been significant in the absence of medicine.
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