Tell me how you are and I will tell you how your birth … At least we can get an idea, but then the time of delivery depends on many other factors. For example, if you are short, it’s natural that your baby is born with a small head, which can be guaranteed (in principle) a birth with fewer complications.
This is one of the conclusions that have reached some European anthropologists after studying the morphology of some women and the relationship with their birth. In the study, it is a connection between the stature of the pregnant woman and the size of the head with the dimensions of the pelvis.
Women with big head have fewer problems to give birth
In this same study, (prepared by anthropologists at the University of Oslo and other European scholars), comes to the conclusion that having a large head also can help at the time of the pregnancy. The reason: there is a close relationship between the sizes of the head with the measures of the pelvic cavity. These anthropologists have realized that women with larger head also have a wider pelvis.
In short, being short and have large heads may be ideal to make a less problematic birth, but then there are many factors involved in delivery, such as the position of the baby at birth or the ease with which the mother dilate, some sort of disease or environmental factors.
Why the birth canal has insufficient space
The explanation for why women have a narrow birth canal of the ‘ideal’ has to do with the history and course of human evolution. At first, women (and men) walk with hands and feet. Stooping, pelvis narrowed to facilitate locomotion. At the same time, the brain of humans evolved and grew larger. Over time, humans ended up walking erect and head size increased significantly. The pelvis of women was not ready for that change.
The study makes sense, especially if we consider that the head size is inherited (although there are exceptions, of course). That is, large head women tend to have big headed babies, so that body needs to have a wider birth canal.
Women with small heads usually have a pelvis more oval, making it more difficult time of expulsion. Much better to have a pelvis more rounded, of the women of small stature.