![]() ![]() ![]() Therefore, these characteristics are not uniquely human. In all three cases, the foetus emerged with an occiput anterior orientation, and the head and body rotated after the head had emerged. ![]() This paper reports the mechanism of birth in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) based on the first clear, close-up video recordings of three chimpanzee births in captivity. However, this notion of human uniqueness has not been substantiated, because there are few comparative studies of birth in non-human primates. Researchers have argued that the process of human birth is unique among primates and mammals in that the infant emerges with its face oriented in the opposite direction from its mother (occiput anterior) and head rotation occurs in the birth canal. Mechanism of birth in chimpanzees: humans are not unique among primates, Biol. She raises the question now that if the birthing of both humans and chimpanzees is similar, why is it that the chimpanzees have not moved toward having assistance with birth while humans have. While she never believed it was a necessity, she still believes it was an evolutionary change to something easier. Wenda Trevathan, a biological anthropologist from New Mexico State University was the first to suggest this evolution to midwifery. Chimpanzees do not require another chimpanzee to assist with the birth, and as observed, they are more comfortable isolating themselves for birth. Witnessing these chimpanzee births, and that fact that they are positioned the same as humans, show that this theory is not the case. The idea behind this was that because the babies were born backwards, it made it difficult for a mother to pick up and nurture the baby as birth completed. It was not until they had a discussion with a researcher in human childbirth that they discovered what their findings meant.īack in the 1980s, researchers suggested that a change in birthing position through human revolution was what led to the use of assistance with birth and midwifery. While they were witnessing the births, the researchers did not realize what they were about to discover would be something contributing to evolutionary theory. During the births, they observed that, like humans, the babies are born facing away from the mother, or backwards. Before this research, no one had witnessed a live chimpanzee birth, as by nature chimpanzees get nervous at birth and seek isolation. Hirata and his team had essentially been living with these chimpanzees, even sleeping in the chimpanzees enclosures at night in order to be able to witness and capture the births on video. ![]()
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