10 Weird Pregnancy Facts No One Tells You About - Oddee.com (facts, pregnancy...)
http://www.oddee.com/item_97595.aspx
Nobody wants to know.
Incidentally, like the use of fire to cook our food, which enabled us to have reduced jaw muscles, which allowed us to have expanded skulls and much bigger brains than our primate cousins with those thick-muscled jaws, the narrowness of the pelvis of a human mother vs. the size of her baby's head as it's being born has made tremendous differences between us and most other mammals. Our babies are actually born several months before they are no longer absolutely helpless. Unlike kittens or puppies or colts, which can stand up and move around within a short time after birth, human babies are at least 6 months old and usually 9 months old before they are able to do the same. Human babies don't begin babbling for several months after birth, and only begin talking well at around age 3 years. Similar differences hold true for everything from potty-training to play behavior to thousands of other aspects of the early life of nonhuman mammals of all kinds. In many ways, we humans come into the world absolutely helpless and utterly dependent on the adults around us to take care of us until we can at least stand, walk, and eat on our own, communicate clearly with others of our own kind, make reasoned judgments, and otherwise navigate our way through the obstacle course of day-to-day survival. Ever since humans and, perhaps, the hominens that were our ancestors have existed, that has held true. It has forced cultural and technological developments in various human societies designed to keep maternal and infant mortality in childbirth as low as possible and the survival, health, well-being, and fertility of our children as high as possible found nowhere else in nature. At bottom, all human civilizations are designed to provide for the generations to come, especially the newest members of the newest generation, so helpless and needy and long-dependent on parental care for their survival and healthy development. We have our narrow pelvises and our babies' big heads to thank for that. So the next time that some idiot tech geek starts ranting about how "useless" other people's children are, remind him/her of that. The look of utter confusion on his/her face in reaction to that is priceless.
Nobody wants to know.
Incidentally, like the use of fire to cook our food, which enabled us to have reduced jaw muscles, which allowed us to have expanded skulls and much bigger brains than our primate cousins with those thick-muscled jaws, the narrowness of the pelvis of a human mother vs. the size of her baby's head as it's being born has made tremendous differences between us and most other mammals. Our babies are actually born several months before they are no longer absolutely helpless. Unlike kittens or puppies or colts, which can stand up and move around within a short time after birth, human babies are at least 6 months old and usually 9 months old before they are able to do the same. Human babies don't begin babbling for several months after birth, and only begin talking well at around age 3 years. Similar differences hold true for everything from potty-training to play behavior to thousands of other aspects of the early life of nonhuman mammals of all kinds. In many ways, we humans come into the world absolutely helpless and utterly dependent on the adults around us to take care of us until we can at least stand, walk, and eat on our own, communicate clearly with others of our own kind, make reasoned judgments, and otherwise navigate our way through the obstacle course of day-to-day survival. Ever since humans and, perhaps, the hominens that were our ancestors have existed, that has held true. It has forced cultural and technological developments in various human societies designed to keep maternal and infant mortality in childbirth as low as possible and the survival, health, well-being, and fertility of our children as high as possible found nowhere else in nature. At bottom, all human civilizations are designed to provide for the generations to come, especially the newest members of the newest generation, so helpless and needy and long-dependent on parental care for their survival and healthy development. We have our narrow pelvises and our babies' big heads to thank for that. So the next time that some idiot tech geek starts ranting about how "useless" other people's children are, remind him/her of that. The look of utter confusion on his/her face in reaction to that is priceless.