Honestly, I think we just ran out of room in the womb for how long we really should be in there developing and shit.
This is like evolutions wonky path to letting us have big ass brains but not always kill the mom when we pop out.
this post was submitted on 22 Mar 2026
94 points (97.0% liked)
Comics
1311 readers
515 users here now
Post your comics here. Single or multi boxed comics.
Please mark nsfw when appropriate.
Same rules as primary server, no hate.
Please warn others if there may be triggers.
Please mark if the comic is yours either in the title or description
obvious ai images will be removed, please include a source to prevent this
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Disclaimer: I have no professional knowledge in this field. Everything I know about it, which is almost nothing, is either from reading cracked.com in the good old days or from witnessing my wife be pregnant and birth a baby.
That said, from my understanding, the issue is less the womb and more the pelvis.
This theory is called the, "obstetrical dilemma," and it's been mostly debunked.
That's what I get for sourcing my knowledge from Cracked, I suppose. Thank you for the update.
No problem. And, to be fair, this study is only 8 years old, so it's very possible Cracked was citing the prevailing scientific theory at the time.
Could be both too, but I'm also not a scientist and don't care enough to go sleuthing through the internet for real scientific theories or hypotheses on the (under)development of human babies compared to other mammals.
This theory has apparently been mostly debunked, so my disclaimer has been justified. I'm rarely an expert, so don't go by what I say! That said, I appreciate the follow-up.
edit: For the debunking, see the response to my other comment.
it's the tradeoff of not [edit laying not having i am the stupid today] eggs. i think. i don't know i feel like i'm getting into wild ass scifi speculation and i have belonged to some cults (and tried to convince them that they become omnipotent spiders/salmon hybrids when they die trust me it is better than what their cult wanted them to believe you don't want me to start getting into it) so like, we hatch the egg (water breaks) inside the mother's body and there's just this straw we gotta claw through to get out, right? only one other route out.
the straw is easier for both of us, even if it's episiotomore trouble than we were planning.
It's called late-game maxxing
humans are sort of unique on this point, our babies are the most worthless and require the longest period of immaturity and dependence before developing
https://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/observations/why-humans-give-birth-to-helpless-babies/
The other animals Zerg rush, but we sit back and tech up
Protoss-ass species, smh
We develop at 3~5 years, the reason we get born with undeveloped brainholes are pelvis constrictions & a societal (& tech?) ability to take care of helpless lil embryos.
Bloodied rabbit with a knife. Overgrowth reference?
Or Sluggy Freelance.