I hear of women in my community and across the world either having stillbirths or dying during the process of birth all the time. Why?
How can a dog or a cow give birth in the dirt and turn out fine, but if humans did the same, the mom/infant have a higher chance of dying? How can baby mice, who are similar to human babies (naked, gross, blind), survive the “newborn phase”?
And why are babies so big but useless? I understand that babies have evolved to have a soft skull to accommodate their big brain, but why don’t they have the strength to keep their head up?
In: Biology
Childbirth is min-maxxed for large brains in humans.
Nature found the balance between “dies in child birth” and “is smart enough to manipulate the environment” and ran with it.
So we are very smart, but sometimes women die in child birth. However, the benefit from group coordination, environmental manipulation, planning, etc is greater than the cost, so we are wildly successful.
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