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Asked by emilyd to Alexandra, Dean, Jess, Luisa, Sian on 22 Jun 2010 in Categories: General.
Question: why havnt scientists found out a way for a person to have a baby with no pain ect when something like a giraffe doesnt even notice they have just had a baby because they dont feel it?
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Sian Foch-Gatrell answered on 21 Jun 2010:
Humans have massive brains compared to other animals. Human babies are essentially already a year early because they are completely unable to do anything when they are born… 9 months is the earliest possible time (generally speaking) that a human can safely be born due to our brain size. Human females are also badly equipped to give birth that other mammals because of our bipedal position. It is much more dangerous for human mothers to give birth than it is for other female mammals. The cervix has to expand from a tiny hole to 10 centimetres!!! That’s just crazy… no wonder labour is so painful! Any drugs given to the mother at the point to make it pain free for her I guess could be dangerous to the baby. The process of the actual birth is supposed to be excruciating, luckily I don’t know. I guess a caesarian would help the pain for this part but not for the labour when the cervix is expanding.
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Alexandra Kamins answered on 21 Jun 2010:
Giraffes do feel it–birth isn’t a simple or easy process for pretty much any mammal. There are two things for human birth to consider. The first is that humans have massive, massive heads in comparison to their bodies (unlike most other animals) and this is very hard to fix through the pelvic passage. The second is that there some debate actually around the birthing process and how we do it–some anthropologists feel that more natural ways of birth (like those administered by midwives rather than hospitals) are better.
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Jessica Housden answered on 22 Jun 2010:
I don’t know – maybe it just isn’t possible! That is the shape we are unfortunately.
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