Is it because of the whole big head/bipedalism thing? Other mammals can pop out babies in no time and it seems like that would be way more advantageous for multiple reasons (less stress on mom and baby, not in a vulnerable position for hours in the wild, etc). Why does the norm skew towards a day rather than hours?
In: 419
Two big reasons.
1. We are bipedal. Our skeletal system has evolved to better support standing on 2 legs, but that makes it worse for childbirth.
2. Our heads are huge. Human children are born earlier in their development cycle compared to other mammals (most mammals can get up and move within minutes of being born, humans take months). This is because any later and our heads wouldn’t fit. As it is, our heads are still huge coming out, and that makes it difficult.
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