Anthropologist's Studies Of Childbirth Bring New Focus On Women In Evolution

Contrary to the TV sitcom where the wife experiencing strong labor pains screams at her husband to stay away from her, women rarely give birth alone. Assisted birth has likely been around for millennia, possibly dating as far back as 5 million years ago when our ancestors first began walking upright, according to a paleoanthropologist. She says that social assistance during childbirth is just one aspect of our evolutionary heritage that makes us distinctive as humans.

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