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Caesarean births could be having an effect on human evolution
• sciencealert.com by DAVID NIELDCaesarean section (or C-section) deliveries can save lives when babies are too large to be born naturally - or if there are other health complications - but they also appear to be affecting how humans are evolving, scientists report.
In the past, larger babies and mothers with narrow pelvis sizes might both have died in labour. Thanks to C-sections, that's now a lot less likely, but it also means that those 'at risk' genes from mothers with narrow pelvises are being carried into future generations.
Cases where a baby can't fit through the birth canal have increased from 30 in 1,000 births in the 1960s to 36 in 1,000 today because of this C-section effect, according to estimates from researchers at the University of Vienna in Austria. That's a significant shift in just half a century.
"Without modern medical intervention, such problems often were lethal and this is, from an evolutionary perspective, selection," theoretical biologist Philipp Mitteroecker told Helen Briggs at the BBC.
"Our intent is not to criticise medical intervention, but it's had an evolutionary effect."