The Rise In C-Sections Could Be Changing Human Evolution

C-sections have been on the rise for decades, now making up more than 30 percent of all deliveries in the United States. An intriguing new study out of Austria suggests that as C-sections have become more common, they might also be altering the course of human evolution. More babies are being born with heads that are too big for their mothers’ pelvises ... which leads, the theory goes, to more C-sections. Why? Before the widespread use of C-sections, larger babies and their narrow-hipped moms had a good chance of dying during childbirth ― meaning their genes weren’t passed on. But because C-sections tend to save those babies, the genes that contribute to a possible bigger head/smaller pelvis scenario have continued to be passed on. The researchers believe that as so-called “fetopelvic disproportion” continues to increase (meaning, more babies have a harder time passing through their mom’s pelvis), C-section rates will grow ― although they caution that at this point it’s only a mathematical theory. “To my knowledge, this has not been shown empirically yet,” study researcher Philipp Mitteröcker, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Vienna told Vox. His team’s findings were published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) this week. And yet some OB-GYNs don’t think the prediction is all that far-fetched.  “It seems like a very reasonable theory,” Dr...
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - Category: Science Source Type: news