Open AccessHUMAN PARTURITION: Does It Require Social Assistance?
Author(s) -
E. Mary-Leigh Lusted
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
journal of anthropology at mcmaster
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 0707-3771
DOI - 10.15173/nexus.v10i1.129
Subject(s) - childbirth , ethnography , psychology , pregnancy , developmental psychology , biology , sociology , anthropology , genetics
Human parturition is compared to that of other primates with the view to critically examining Trevathan's (1987, 1988) hypothesis that human beings require a midwife during parturition because of unique human physical and physiological traits. The supposed vast differences, both biological and social, between human childbirth and nonhuman primate parturition are questioned, using historical, ethnographic and fossil data. It is concluded that many of the complications associated with the human birth process may be the result of the Western practice of giving birth lying down, and that a midwife is not an obligatory adjunct to childbirth.