Biologist Philipp Mitteroecker found that women born by Caesarean section due to a fetopelvic disproportion (FDP) are more than twice as likely to develop FDP when giving birth than women born naturally (Copyright: University of Vienna).
Women born by Caesarean section due to a fetopelvic disproportion (FDP) are more than twice as likely to develop FDP when giving birth than women born naturally. This is the conclusion of a study by a team of evolutionary biologists at the University of Vienna headed by Philipp Mitteroecker. Using a mathematical model, the team was able to explain the paradoxical phenomenon that natural selection did not lead to the reduction in the rates of obstructed labour. Empirical data also support that the regular use of C-sections has already triggered an evolutionary increase of FPD rates. During the last decades, rates of Caesarean section have multiplied; by now it is one of the most frequently performed surgical treatments worldwide. Even if many of these C-sections are not strictly medically indicated, human childbirth is complicated and risky compared to that in other primates. Why has evolution by natural selection not led to a wider birth canal, thus reducing the high rates of obstructed labor? - Recently, a team headed by Philipp Mitteroecker, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Vienna, showed that these high rates are a direct consequence of the distinct characteristics of obstetric selection in humans.
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