Why does human birth always have so many complications? It seems as though it’s equally likely to hear about a complicated birth as it is to hear about a normal birth

Question

It seems like so often, and really more often than not, I hear about births having so many things go wrong with them. Why does it seem so hard for humans to hear have a normal birth with a healthy baby?

In: Biology

Answer 1

I recently read that until like the 15th century women almost never gave birth lying on their backs. There were standing. Squatting and kneeling positions that were quite common.

But this one king thought the miracle of birth was hawttt. So he forced his lovers to birth on their backs where he had a largely unobstructed view of the events.

And it caught on because the peasants wanted to be like the royals. And just kind of became the default from there.

You do see these older positions used still, especially during more difficult births or when working more with midwives than obgyns.