Human childbirth is one of the worst and most dangerous; you know why?

Most animals have shorter pregnancies and shorter births, and pups develop faster. So why, after gestating for 9 months, did we go through an extremely risky birth, which over the centuries has killed - and still kills - countless women? And why, moreover, are we born so vulnerable that it takes years to become minimally independent? The answer, incredible as it may seem, lies in our evolution.

Going back in time

Looking at the fossils of our ancestors from 7 million years ago, we can see very few similarities; one was walking on two legs. There was beginning an evolutionary process that would bring us to where we are today.

To get food, we had to travel long distances and be able to carry it. This meant that our bone and muscle structure had to change, including the structure of the pelvis; that is, the channel through which puppies previously passed, which was straight and straight, became distorted because of changing posture and narrowing of the hips. But it did not stop there. We continued to evolve, and our brain began to enlarge, and along with it, our skull.

The sum of all this made the two parts suffer much more in childbirth: the mother, who had her body adapted for survival, but not enough that the childbirth could happen without the sensation of dozens of bones breaking; and the child, who had to start writhing in various ways to get out of the mother's womb, had to be born with a predominantly cartilage-shaped skeleton and a partially open skull (called a molter), which makes her much more vulnerable than the other puppies.

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