Big Hips and Small Heads Don't Have Evolutionary Advantages Any More

[vellavu]

Caesarean Births Could Be Having an Effect on Human Evolution

Caesarean section (or C-section) deliveries can save lives when babies are too large to be born naturally - or if there are other health complications - but they also appear to be affecting how humans are evolving, scientists report.

In the past, larger babies and mothers with narrow pelvis sizes might both have died in labour. Thanks to C-sections, that's now a lot less likely, but it also means that those 'at risk' genes from mothers with narrow pelvises are being carried into future generations.


Cases where a baby can't fit through the birth canal have increased from 30 in 1,000 births in the 1960s to 36 in 1,000 today because of this C-section effect, according to estimates from researchers at the University of Vienna in Austria. That's a significant shift in just half a century.

"Without modern medical intervention, such problems often were lethal and this is, from an evolutionary perspective, selection," theoretical biologist Philipp Mitteroecker told Helen Briggs at the BBC.

 

[ILLYRIAN]

Is that a joke? There is only an increase of 6 in 60 years, that is not a significant amount. So that's from some dick-wads at the Uni of Vienna in Austria. That gives a plus to the Brexit vote.

I was born in natural childbirth at home, because of crap conditions in the hospital I had a middle class birth.
The working class birth consisted of Oi, get the F out of there, she's due back at work soon!

 

[Athena]

Sorry, but they can't suggest that we've evolved to have smaller hips after only 50 years of c-section studies..... human evolution takes hundreds of years. It's a painfully slow process. You're studying two generations, three max, during that 50 year period (because before then, c-sections just did not exist). It's impossible that sort of evolutionary study could be conclusive after 50 years.

Sure, genetically you could be pre-disposed to something your mother has. My mother has wide hips; I have wide hips, but my sister doesn't. That's not evolution, that's just down to the gene pool and what you get handed to you.

Coincidentally my slim-hipped sister gave birth naturally to her normal sized headed baby just fine..... 😉

 

[Professor Walsh]

Uhm, this sounds like someone are jumping to conclusions. If evolution happened that fast, our feet would fit better in shoes by now.