How Did Ancient Humans Survive Childbirth?

How did ancient humans survive childbirth? 3,700 years ago in Egypt, women gave birth crouched on 2 painted bricks — and one brick shows the mother alive, holding her baby. Ancient childbirth, prehistoric midwives and how ancient humans kept mothers and babies alive — every claim sourced below. 💬 Helpers, tools, or grandmothers — which kept more of them alive? One word. In this video we discuss: Why humans almost never give birth alone — and why the problem is older than our species The birth room: Egyptian birth bricks, a Roman birthing chair, and a medieval girdle that still holds a mother's traces The grandmother hypothesis — how grandmothers may be why mothers survived CHAPTERS 00:00 A birth on 2 painted bricks 00:22 Twins, 7,700 years ago 01:13 Why humans never give birth alone 02:55 Birth bricks and the birthing chair 04:35 The girdle that kept her traces 05:24 Grandmothers: the strangest answer 07:16 Your mother's mother's mother — SOURCES — Lieverse, A. R. et al., "Death by twins: a remarkable case of dystocic childbirth in Early Neolithic Siberia," Antiquity (2015). Rosenberg, K. & Trevathan, W., "Bipedalism and Human Birth: The Obstetrical Dilemma Revisited," Evolutionary Anthropology 4(5): 161–168 (1995). Ponce de León, M. S. et al., "Neanderthal brain size at birth provides insights into the evolution of human life history," PNAS (2008). Wegner, J., "A decorated birth-brick from South Abydos," Egyptian Archaeology 21 (2002). University of Pennsylvania / Penn Museum. Soranus of Ephesus, Gynecology (2nd century CE; trans. O. Temkin, 1956). Fiddyment, S. et al., "Girding the loins? Direct evidence of the use of a medieval English parchment birthing girdle from biomolecular analysis," Royal Society Open Science (2021). doi:10.1098/rsos.202055 Dunsworth, H. M. et al., "Metabolic hypothesis for human altriciality," PNAS (2012). Hawkes, K. et al., "Grandmothering, menopause, and the evolution of human life histories," PNAS (1998). Kim, P. S., Coxworth, J. E. & Hawkes, K., "Increased longevity evolves from grandmothering," Proceedings of the Royal Society B (2012). #ancienthumans #childbirth #prehistory #archaeology #humanevolution