Has evolution made childbirth easier or not?

Anannya Roy, Amity University Kolkata

It is said that labour pain equals pain felt when 20 bones crack at the same time. Ouch. Just thinking about it is painful. A woman indeed is a strong and marvellous creation of God who is bestowed with the gift of creating Life. This gift comes with a price, which is physically painful.

Here a question arises. If evolution, over some time favours and develops the favourable features and processes and discards the unfavourable features and processes, then why hasn’t Human Biology developed in such a way to make Childbirth/ Parturition easier?

Researchers and Engineers at the University of Texas and the University of Vienna created a near-perfect balance between supporting childbirth and supporting organ on a day to day basis. It is believed that compared to other mammals, human reproduction is unique because there is a comparatively tight fit between the birth canal and the baby’s head. 

The balance is maintained by the size of the pelvic floor and the canal. These two opposing duties are the reason why the pelvic floor did not evolve to make childbirth easier, because if that happened, then the ability to protect organs would be compromised.

Our pelvic floor and birth canal has evolved to a point where they support the internal organs optimally while also helping in childbirth at the same time making it as easy as possible. These dimensions are the reason why childbirth is difficult, yet these are the best proportions.

The pelvic floor refers to a band of muscles that stretches across the bottom of our abdomen, starting from tailbone to pubic bone. It provides support to different pelvic organs including, the uterus, bladder and bowel and also provides stability to the spine.

There are two Hypotheses

1. If the pelvic floor and canal were larger, it would facilitate easier childbirth but since there wouldn’t be additional bones to support it, it will most likely deform under the weight of organs, causing them to fall downward. Hence it would do more harm than good.

2. The second one state that if the pelvic floors were thicker, they could support organs better and provide an expanded size in childbirth, but in that case, higher intra-abdominal pressure will be required during parturition, beyond what humans are capable of producing. In this case, despite the extra space in the birth canal, the mothers won’t be able to push the baby out. This would complicate childbirth even more.

Krishna Kumar, an assistant professor from Cockrell School of Engineering’s Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering used a finite element analysis, a computerized model to test whether different elements will break/ wear down when facing high levels of pressure. 

This collaboration proves one thing, that all subjects are interlinked. At the first glance, this topic appears to be outside his discipline but as he said, “You can abstract all Biology away, and it all comes down to what happens if you apply stress, what it does to bodies and structures with different material properties.”

In other words, why has evolution not eased childbirth? Well because nature has always been miles ahead of us. It plans everything, efficiently. What our job as budding researchers and science enthusiasts to decode the puzzle and understand the language of the universe.

Also read: Anaemia and Insomnia might be related!!!

Reference: https://www.pnas.org/content/118/16/e2022159118

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