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Dalbergia12 t1_j5auk9n wrote

It absolutely happens in the wild. Since complications usually kill in the wild, the genetic predisposition to have any dangerous complications are culled out of the gene pool, so it happens less.

Many cattle and horses have very poor ability to give birth without help now. This is because they have had help for numerous generations. On cattle operations where because of geography and climate this doesn't work, ranchers are using bloodlines that have a strong ability to give birth unaided. An acquaintance developed a line of bulls whose offspring have smaller shoulders, the cows need no help almost ever. Breeding. Evolution. Darwin.

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mxjuno t1_j5dc204 wrote

We’ve only had our current birth interventions for a few generations. That’s not enough generations to make an evolutionary change.

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jrob323 t1_j5dsqcv wrote

It's likely humans have been helping each other give birth since we were human.

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Zeebuss t1_j5koxla wrote

For humans, midwifery is one the oldest and most ubiquitous professions in history, we've been intervening in birth for as long as know anything about.

Animal birth as well, animal husbandry is at least as old as agricultural, but domestication was already well underway among pre-agricultural nomadic societies.

Neither of these practices of artificial selection and assisted birth are "a few generations" old. They are ancient and absolutely have had enough generations for significant adaptation to occur. Also human artificial selection can happen much faster than that.

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mxjuno t1_j5ky5qq wrote

I was actually going to include that caveat but I tried to keep it simple. There are so many generations of wisdom in midwifery, and I’m absolutely sure it has made a difference over the generations. I used midwives myself for my births. I wish I could find the article that refuted that our anatomy would’ve changed that much due to interventions that humans use and animals do not.

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MartiniBikini7777 t1_j5mqyei wrote

Have you heard of the silver fox experiment in Russia ? A man took wild foxes and within 10 generations changed them from wild animals to the equivalent of domesticated dogs. So with constant conditions, evolution can happen relatively quickly.

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mxjuno t1_j5o9qej wrote

Definitely heard of it. I haven’t had as much time as I like to respond to comments but the most efficient way to say this is that we have not been selecting for characteristics that will create conditions for more dangerous or difficult births in such a concentrated way.

We are selecting for babies and moms who will survive the process of gestation and birth, which has changed in a way more nuanced way (ie we have lost some ways of moving and feeding ourselves which create more dangerous birth conditions, and we have gained a lot of tools that have increased survival of pregnancy and birth). That won’t change the mortality rates of pregnancy and birth in a huge way within a few generations of c sections and other more modern interventions.

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