Childbirth may have been difficult for ancient hominins CHRISTIAN JEGOU PUBLIPHOTO DIFFUSION/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
It isn’t just modern humans that have found giving birth painful and dangerous. Growing evidence suggests birth was difficult for our hominin relatives millions of years ago. As a result, earlier hominins like Australopithecus may have needed help to deliver their babies.
Birth is strikingly dangerous for modern humans compared with other primates. Globally, . In the worst-affected countries, such as South Sudan, the maternal mortality rate is more than five times that. Many nations have…
