Childbirth and the Evolution of Homo Sapiens
eBook - ePub

Childbirth and the Evolution of Homo Sapiens

  1. English
  2. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

Childbirth and the Evolution of Homo Sapiens

About this book

The period surrounding birth is a phase of modern life that has been dramatically altered in recent decades, and emerging scientific disciplines have shown that this short period is critical in the formation of human beings. Michel Odent, former obstetrician and revolutionary childbirth pioneer, believes that these are two good reasons to raise questions about the way babies are born, and the consequences this may have for the evolution of Homo sapiens. Furthermore, the transmission of acquired traits to subsequent generations can now be scientifically interpreted (epigenetics, the transmission of the mircobiome, etc), which may represent a defining moment in our understanding of the mechanisms by which evolution occurs. Recent scientific advances have been so spectacular that they merit this updated edition of a book that was originally published in 2013. Obstetric practice is generally evaluated in the short term; this ground-breaking book encourages us to think about modes of birth in the long term, and to consider the impact they have on our species and its evolution.
It is a readable, yet thought-provoking book, which will give anyone interested in evolution and the future of Homo sapiens much new material to consider.

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Yes, you can access Childbirth and the Evolution of Homo Sapiens by Michel Odent in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Medicine & Gynecology, Obstetrics & Midwifery. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title
  3. Copyright
  4. Contents
  5. Introduction – The long-term consequences of how we are born: an anthology of valuable studies
  6. Chapter One: Ecce Homo
  7. Chapter Two: Evolution revisited
  8. Chapter Three: The future of the human oxytocin system
  9. Chapter Four: A landmark in the evolution of brain size?
  10. Chapter Five: ‘Microbes Maketh Man’
  11. Chapter Six: Should we criminalize planned vaginal birth?
  12. Chapter Seven: That is the question
  13. Chapter Eight: Active management of human evolution
  14. Chapter Nine: Physiology v cultural conditioning
  15. Chapter Ten: Reasonable optimism
  16. Chapter Eleven: Avenues for research
  17. Chapter Twelve: Repressed common sense
  18. Chapter Thirteen: The story is not finished
  19. Chapter Fourteen: Labour pain revisited
  20. Chapter Fifteen: No paradigm shift without language shift
  21. Chapter Sixteen: Love as an evolutionary handicap
  22. Chapter Seventeen: Reasonable pessimism
  23. Chapter Eighteen: The future of enthusiasm
  24. Chapter Nineteen: Homo sapiens and the virosphere
  25. Chapter Twenty: Cultural blindness
  26. References
  27. Index