If only my wife lived a million years ago, she could have had a relatively pain free birth. A recent discovery of an ancient pelvis shows that early homo erectus had a birth canal 30% larger than modern man. This was a huge surprise to scientists who assumed that our large brains evolved quicker than our pelvis size. Now, we are forced to look at the mystery of why we evolved a smaller pelvis, perhaps natural selection chose a skeletal posture that was easier for running. We don’t know.
Moms today may have to do aqua aerobics to lessen the pain of labor. A new study was startled to accidentally find that pregnant mothers who practiced aqua aerobics were less likely to request extra pain medication. Though the sample size of 71 expectant mothers was smaller than most scientists would prefer, the difference was significant. Only 27% of the aerobics group asked for pain medication compared to 65% of the control group.
November 24, 2008 at 1:36 pm
I suspect that the aqua aerobics group were self-selecting. If you’re going to get the epidural anyway, why do the aqua aerobics. If you believe in a NCB woo, then your ideology would prevent you from requesting the meds because that interfere with your beautiful birth.