I seem to remember reading somewhere…That it makes a woman need a compainion…someone to share the pain so to speak.
Perhaps the pain makes us a monogamous species?
Another reaspon that I once heard is that in encouraged the woman to be more selective. Since a female gets about one chance a year, it can cause death, and is extremely painful, the woman was encouraged to make sure it was a good mate, thus adding an extra element to selection, rather than jumping in the deerskins with the first shlub to grunt a pickup line. And the more painful the effort, the faster the positive evolution.
The one problem I see with this is at what point did humans start to choose mates, or did the largest males simply breed with all of the females in the area, like a lot of animal species.
Another reaspon that I once heard is that in encouraged the woman to be more selective. Since a female gets about one chance a year, it can cause death, and is extremely painful, the woman was encouraged to make sure it was a good mate, thus adding an extra element to selection, rather than jumping in the deerskins with the first shlub to grunt a pickup line. And the more painful the effort, the faster the positive evolution.
The one problem I see with this is at what point did humans start to choose mates, or did the largest males simply breed with all of the females in the area, like a lot of animal species.
Just a note…midwives do indeed perform episiotomies. I had two delivered by midwives, and both insisted on it. With the third I went to an MD who agreed to deliver the baby in a birthing room without an IV, enema, or episiotomy. It was nice and I went home four hours later. By the way, the pain thing really varies from person to person. In my case, I had exactly two painful contractions with each kid, and my longest labor was 2 1/2 hours, but I have been assured that that’s not the norm.
Wolfman said: The one problem I see with this is at what point did humans start to choose mates, or did the largest
males simply breed with all of the females in the area, like a lot of animal species.
It doesn’t seem we ever existed outside of family groups and from what you can see on Discovery and other animal programs “the group” had a say in reproduction. For the higher primates females follow the rules of the group, they aren’t left alone to be raped by the first passing group of males.
Asmodeus, at least women aren’t expected to eat the after birth or even bury it. That brings up the whole question of cutting the cord, what to chimps do? What did primitive humans do?
Single files, I don’t know if we’d “ever” agree what midwives do - regardless of their training it is the certification from the individual states that determines what they are allowed to do. And there may be differences from state to state depending on whether of not the midwife is a solo practioner or part of a group preactice with certified OB-GYN doctors.