Before painless childbirth was invented, all women in the world had to go through a ghost gate when giving birth, and many even died because of it. Only a very small number of women are lucky enough not to feel pain during a vaginal birth.
So the question is, since vaginal labor is so painful, why do most pregnant women survive it?
Why does vaginal labor hurt?
Before understanding why most pregnant women survive the pain of a vaginal birth, we must first understand why vaginal labor is painful.
In fact, about 10 million years ago, humans did not have the same pain when they gave birth to offspring, when humans were still an ape living in African forests, still walking on all fours and with a small brain capacity.
Walking on all fours allowed the human ancestors of the time to maintain larger pelvis bones, and larger pelvis bones made the birth canal opening larger. In addition, the brain capacity of human ancestors at that time did not exceed 650 ml, so when the smaller baby's head encountered a larger birth canal opening, it became less difficult to give birth, and the human ancestors at this time were able to easily give birth to offspring.
With the environmental changes in Africa, the local forests have gradually decreased, and people who originally lived in trees have to go to the ground to live, and after people go to the ground to live, they begin to live on the land surface by walking upright.
In order to adapt to the way of walking upright, the bones of the human body have undergone major changes, among which the human pelvis has become narrower, because the wider pelvis will cause the center of gravity of the human to walk upright, and will walk and shake like a gorilla.
On the other hand, after humans began to eat meat, the brain volume began to expand, and the baby's head circumference became larger and larger. The baby's head is the key to delivery, and experienced birth nurses know that when the baby's head comes out, the body comes out very quickly.
When the baby's head becomes larger and larger, it encounters a narrower pelvis, which leads to human dystocia and increases infant and maternal mortality.
This time, natural selection once again came into play, and humans found a solution in the process of evolution: to produce offspring early. The advantage of having offspring early is to solve the problem of high infant mortality, but the disadvantage also follows, that is, the survival ability of the baby is almost zero, and the strength of the mother alone cannot raise offspring, so the father also returns to the family, and human society begins to become monogamous.
Why do most pregnant women make it through?
Although human beings have adopted the method of early birth to solve the problem of high infant mortality, it has not solved the problem of women's pain during childbirth, so from ancient times to the present, human women will face heart-wrenching pain when giving birth. If women face heart-wrenching pain when giving birth, why do most pregnant women survive it?
The reason is simple, because pregnant women who can't survive are eliminated by natural selection and have no chance to leave offspring.
For example, if there are two women, pregnant woman A can withstand the pain of giving birth to offspring, so she may leave offspring to pass on her genes; However, pregnant woman B is more sensitive to pain, and it is difficult to bear the pain of childbirth during childbirth, resulting in death during childbirth, and after the death of pregnant woman B, the survival rate of the fetus will be significantly reduced.
Over the course of human evolution, natural selection phased out this gene, eventually allowing most women to survive the pain of childbearing. But even so, in the past when medicine was underdeveloped, infant and maternal mortality rates were still very high. Even now, maternal deaths continue to occur.
But fortunately, now we have painless delivery technology, and we also have caesarean section, if the fetus is too heavy, or the pregnant woman is unable to produce offspring herself, then the doctor will turn to the cesarean section technique to remove the baby.
It is worth noting that although medical advances have helped women reduce the pain during childbirth, the pain of pregnancy and the pain of raising children are still experienced by every mother.
If you are a husband and a father, don't think that women should do all this, and don't think that every woman will go through this, so your wife is not great or special.
In fact, every woman pays a great price when giving birth to offspring, hoping that every boy can understand how to be considerate and distressed.