Why do humans possess a twisted birth canal?

The relatively narrow human birth canal presumably evolved as a "compromise" between its abilities for parturition, support of the inner organs, and upright walking. But not only the size of the birth canal, also its complex, ...

Childbirth versus pelvic floor stability

Human childbirth is comparatively difficult because our babies' heads are large relative to our birth canals. This tight 'fetopelvic' fit increases the risk of obstructed labor, which in turn has potentially dire outcomes ...

The climb to the pouch begins in utero

Scientists have visualised the short pregnancy of a small species of the kangaroo and wallaby family of marsupials, the tammar wallaby (Macropus eugenii), for the first time by high-resolution ultrasound. The study has shed ...

'You will give birth in pain': Neanderthals too

(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers from the University of California at Davis (USA) and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig (Germany) present a virtual reconstruction of a female Neanderthal pelvis ...