Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Survival of the Fittest

Having suffered through many of the usual symptoms and effects I can't help but draw the conclusion: pregnancy makes no damn sense. When you take into account all the mental effects and physical illness it's a wonder anyone is alive at all. Here are the typical signs:

*Nausea
*Morning Sickness
*Headaches
*UTIs
*Kidney Stones
*Lack of appetite
*Heartburn
*Lack of mobility
*Stiffness of limbs
*Rapid weight gain
*Breathing difficulties
*A tiny person kicking your insides..

Any number of these on a non-pregnant person would be cause for alarm or immediate hospitalization. Also, without proper access to medical care if a person in an underdeveloped nation were to get any of these their chances of dying from it would be extremely high.

So, despite this being 'normal' for pregnancy consider how the following affects the chances of an infant's survival:


*Nausea,Lack of appetite, Morning Sickness & Heartburn:
This one is pretty simple. You don't eat, you don't get the food your body needs to make a baby. You'd figure evolution would prepare you so that you can get all nutrition possible, but this is sadly not the case. Sorry baby, if I can't eat, neither can you. Add on top of that the nations that already have a food shortage, and it's a wonder there's such a mass population in those third world countries.


*Headaches & Forgetfulness:
Inflicting mental anguish on a body already under physical attack is a wonderful idea. Not.

*UTIs &Kidney Stones:
Apart from exposing your unborn fetus to painful and possibly deadly diseases near the birth canal....wait? Where was I going with this?


*Lack of mobility,Rapid weight gain & Stiffness of limbs:
Although we don't have the same worries over running away from a fanged predator in the night, any modern threats like say, a bad driver or a falling heavy object could still kill off the slow waddling pregnant lady.

*Breathing difficulties:
Like being able to eat, if the mother can't breathe, neither can the baby. Babies without oxygen are kind of a huge problem.

*A tiny person kicking your insides..
Self explanatory. Be thankful they cannot rupture organs. Maybe.


Sure, you can argue it's this way so that only the strong and healthy babies survive this ordeal. I mean, yes, we're stretchy and able to overcome many diseases thanks to modern medicine, but our ancestors had to live through all of these great pains without technology and suffered greatly compared to our pampered lives. Even in this modern world the infant mortality rate in several countries is no less a disturbing statistic. The human body is not built adequately to care for both a fetus and a mother. When thinking about all the aforementioned, it's surprising anyone is born without severe damage.