His comment on needing midwives about x million years ago reminded me of a quote I heard in college: "If prostitution is the world's oldest profession, midwifery is the second."
Hannah Dyson I think that he means women assisting other women, not a profession. And since it is about women it wasn’t written down. Most records and histories were written by men so they didn’t know anything about births.
has anyone considered that the for-profit healthcare system in America is the cause of so many cesareans? Because cesareans are more expensive than delivery through the birth canal & it would get promoted more to patients
tumblenc it would be interesting to see the rates of caesarean sections in other countries where they have nationalised health services and compare them to the US's
I haven't verified this information, but I've heard that many private insurance companies won't cover 'natural' (birth-canal births), but they will cover c-sections- so out-of-pocket expenses for women would be much lower if they had a cesarean.
There is a megaton of information on this stuff, but here's a report from the WHO.. it's just a bit dense: "The Global Numbers and Costs of Additionally Needed and Unnecessary Caesarean Sections Performed per Year: Overuse as a barrier to universal coverage" www.who.int/healthsystems/topics/financing/healthreport/30C-sectioncosts.pdf
Glad to have you back! Great topic, too. Obviously too big of a topic to completely encompass in one video. Still, I do wish Africa hadn't been portrayed in such broad strokes. Particularly paired with a handful of video clips from the poorest regions, it continues the unfortunate stereotype of the entire continent being one homogenized area. It was cool to get so granular as to focus on the worst of the industrialized world (Texas). It would've been enlightening to compare that to the best of the non-industrialized world. Hope that wasn't too critical! I do love the Brain Scoop. It's really great to have it back.
You're so right, it's just unfortunate that Africa's neonatal mortality rates per country tend to be higher than global averages either way. This interactive chart from WHO is really illuminating: apps.who.int/gho/data/node.sdg.3-2-viz-3?lang=en Cuba has a remarkably low infant mortality rate, on par with countries like Australia and Belgium, because they invest so much into their (government-supported!!) healthcare system.
What factors are leading to a higher mortality rate in countries above the global average? I'd like to know if this is a problem that we can solve (either via technological support, hygiene improvements, or otherwise).
Galakyllz I know that part of the problem is lack of medical support, sometimes a woman can live so far away from the hospital if there are any problems or if the baby starts coming it could be too late by the time they get to the hospital. I know of some charities who are building half way birthing centres where women can go when they are close to birth or having issues so that they can be closer to the hospital and have a team of doctors and midwifes on hand. cry.org.uk have a project in Cambodia which has seen amazing results!
Google "A Walk to Beautiful" This one film does a pretty good job of summing up at least one set of causal loops which April Lydia describes in her comment. Hans Rosling does a wonderful job communicating a variety of population statistics. I promise it's not as dry as it sounds. His delivery would fit very well in a Brainscoop. He has a couple great videos relevant to the question. One video simply compares the effect of education on infant and mother mortality. The results are startling.
I was a c-section baby too because the umbilical cord was wrapped around my neck. My younger brother was a vaginal birth (and we're only 13 months apart).
i find the skulls of children really freaky, with all those teeth crammed above their milk teeth. how does that even work? do they grow along with the growth of our first set of teeth? or later? how do teeth grow in general?
ruby r They grow in from specific stem cells that start activating when the child is about eight years old. Those stem cells are one time activation. Some researchers are trying to find ways to replicate them so when people lose teeth as adults they can grow new teeth instead of surgically removing the broken teeth and inserting artificial teeth. The problem is how to do it without upsetting people who oppose embryonic stem cells harvesting.
Great episode! I commented on your previous video that candid interviews are one of the signature aspects of this show, and your interview with Dr. Martin is a good example of that.
Yay for new brainscoop! Interesting topic! Crazy to think that we celebrate our 1st female doctor a 100 years ago or so, yet midwives were around for a million years!
disgusting tbh... 1000's of year of MAN made religion suppressing half the human population and crippling women.. which in turn crippled men cause they had to putt contiuned effort into beings sexist and also baring the burdens of work as women werent allowed to take care of themselves cause that means they have coin/money and can decided for themselves...
actually, in this case, _because_ they are billionaires? - Like, I could be generous all I wanted, but if I did even a fraction of a fraction of a percent of what they did, I'd almost certainly be bankrupt. Certainly in absolute terms. But even in relative ones: There is a base cost to living. The farther removed from that you are, the easier it is to put a fraction of your income into causes that aren't strictly for your own good.
Bill Gates is in a class of his own though, I mean he has already donated somewhere around 28 billion dollars (His net worth is currently like 75-80 billion, that is about 30-35% of his net worth), and when he dies, he's donating 95% of his wealth to charity as well.
eyesofblue86 however his good friend Warren buffett is a greedy dirty old fuck. he lobbied politicians and drove solar power industry out of Nevada to protect his own utility company.
Bill's mentality is that no one needs anything near the amount of money he has in order to survive. And it is true, no one needs the shear abundance of money he has so he donates these ridiculously large amounts of money to charities.
This is wonderfully done! We don't talk about the consequences of evolution very often. So it gets represented as a linear march towards perfection when you have situations like upright walking vs. outstanding intellect vs. ability to deliver safely
I am so glad your videos are back. I really missed them! And this was a great topic. I left some critical comments, which were in no way intended to be "slams", but constructive. However, I realized I had left out the positives, and in balance, despite my serious concerns, this was a very worthwhile topic and video. I look forward to more and even better videos!
I cannot express how much I love these videos!! Emily is always so energetic and can get me excited about anything!!! I truly appreciate these videos and I often go back and watch them because I find everything so interesting!! I even started thinking about studying biology in college!! Keep up the good work!!!!
I had to keep pausing the video to look at all the awesome stuff in your office and on your desk. Do you ever walk into work in the morning and go "Oh my god, I have an OFFICE! And a DESK! And both of them are full of / covered with AWESOME THINGS because my life is AWESOME!"?
thanks for this brain scoop! that study in texas in 2011 is so relevant now that people's access to free and low cost prenatal health care etc is being threatened by legislators
I was born through emergency cesarean. My placenta detached 5 1/2 weeks before my due date and my mom, who is only 5'3 and 100 lbs., lost and entire gallon of blood. Luckily, I was developed enough to go home that day without any extensive medical care.
Note that his calendar says october 2015 and the publication date of the video says february 2017. Backlog of content and upload schedule aside, that goes to show just how much effort goes into these videos. Bravo!
This video was so well done; I really enjoyed the biological anthropological focus. You answered several questions about the evolution of human birth that I have been pondering these past few months since giving birth for the first time! Also, on an unrelated note, have you seen the fabulous Google doodles highlighting the plight of the pangolin?!
bonsensical if you'd like to hear more on this, check out the documentary "tales from the royal bedchamber". they go into more detail about giving birth through the ages. it's from the BBC but you might find it on RUclips along with many other Lucy Worsley docs.
Only just found this channel today through MinuteEarth and I just have to say, Emily, you are so incredibly charming and fun to watch! ^_^ I look forward to bingeing all your videos!
The cesarean and midwife aspect of birthing is particularly ignored in this side of the world and I'm glad it was briefly discussed in this vid. I hope midwifery becomes the norm again, for our own sake.
I loved this video and the topic. I can't wait to see more videos that discuss this topic and related topics focusing on human birth. It's fascinating to see the statistics and get reliable explanations. So much around this topic is so emotionally charged and I think it's extremely important to have access to quality information and research. Can't wait for more!!!
I enjoyed the video, but I have a super minor question bugging me. I know videos take a little while to come out, but was this interview filmed in October of 2015 as his calendar shows? It would take nothing away from it, but it would just be a longer lead time than I imagined.
This was bugging me as well, we waited a long time for a new Brain Scoop, but it seems like it was filmed in October 2015... so maybe not so new? If it was filmed a few weeks ago, why is the calendar so far out of date? It doesn't seem likely that it is just "I forgot to flip it", as the whole thing would've been replaced twice since then. How could you forget for that long? Not that I doubt what Emily says, but, it just makes me think...
I don't know. I had a calendar (with giraffes) in my office that I used for two years. The second time round, I'd just flip it once in a while, because the dates wouldn't line up with the days of the week anyway. More like a changing picture than a calendar, really.
Is the Field Museum cheating by using time machines? Because that's not fair, my local natural history has two entire floors of collection that no one can visit because they can't afford to make it safe for the public and you just blow your funds on time machines so you can get the best stuff.
Yes, yes, and yes. Thank you for this! I'd be interested in you doing a video on the evolution of diet and what we truly should be eating verses the Standard American Diet.
Around 6:18 - "...Decreasing the access to healthcare facilities actually exponentially increase the rate of infant and mother mortality." Why this even needs to be restated in this day and age is rather beyond me.
Aren't Neanderthal skulls larger than their modern human counterparts? I'd love to have a video on how that worked. Did Neanderthal infants have more flexible skulls than even human infants? Did Neanderthal skulls grow more rapidly after birth? Or did Neanderthal pelvises allow for a larger birth canal while still having bipedal movement?
As a woman, the thought of having a baby parasite inside me, giving agonizing birth to it and having it end your life during "motherhood" absolutely repulses me. All while husbands and boyfriends look on with arrogant pity at not being cursed with womanhood.
Many bulldogs need a cesarian delivery because of their big heads, that's how we have selected for the breed. It wouldn't be good if humans would require the same going forward, just because so many are using that method without a real medical reason for it.
Well, with natural births, natural selection would lead to babies with too big heads and too big a size would be selected out of the population, as would women with teeny tiny pelvises. With loads of c-sections, nature is no longer selecting against those traits...so it would be more like maybe bigger babies over time.
I was a breech baby, my mom needed a cesarean. Watching this video reminded how lucky I was to be born in an age with good enough medical knowledge to get me out safely.
Flintstoned To be fair, it is completely possible to give vaginal birth to a breech baby with little to no complications, it's just rarely done in the US because our doctors aren't trained on the procedure because C-section is the default decision when a breech birth seemed imminent.
I disagree, roughly 43.2% (about 3,877,868) voted for Hilary Clinton. So I would consider that a lot of Texans, but you are correct that it wasn't enough. Anyway it doesn't matter how much we dislike Trump now we have to stick together and do our best as a whole.
4:36 -To put things into perspective, it's estimated that there's around 350 000 births a day currently. That means that around 1 in 425 women giving birth dies in the process. That's a lot (~0.24% chance).
I was horrified when I first heard a couple of months ago about the infant mortality rate doubling in Texas, but I didn't know that the US as a whole had the worst infant mortality rate of developed countries. I'm Australian and our infant mortality rate in 2015 was 3.2 per 1,000 live births and has been steadily dropping for years, eg down from 4.9 per 1,000 live births in 2005. Nationally, in the US, it's around 6 per 1,000 live births. It was hard to find the exact number because of stats at different sources varying from 6 to 6.5 - but it's close to, or just over double of my country, which has universal healthcare, which, I think, is an enormous factor.
I've seen that you and minuteearth have done these colab videos with the gates foundation. Are there other colab videos with other youtubers? How can I find them?
Maybe I misheard, but why would you have full anesthesia for caesarian? For me it was a 30 minutes long surgery start to finish, with local anesthesia. And it was emergency one, too - I imagine planned one would've been even better, without all the unnecessary pain and worry around it. YEs it is a major surgery, but it is a pretty safe one as far as surgeries go, and it helps prevent birth traumas for mums and bubs, especially given that newborns seem to be getting bigger and bigger. The stats comparing midwives-assisted clildbirth cases with obstetrician assisted ones tend to not control for the simple fact that more complicated pregnancies usually end up with obstetricians in the first place, so lengthly labour might very well be due to that, and not due to who's assisting. And don't get me started on midwives. They are all good and well for uncomplicated pregnancies and textbook births, sure. But they seem to lack hard scientific knowledge and the boundaries of their responsibilities - i.e. when to pass the case to a doctor. I had a hell of a third trimester thanks to my midwife (otherwise a nice lady with the best intentions and tonnes of experience - just not with the scientific approach) trying to make me feel better instead of doing blood tests to address my concerns. This is a common enough complaint. Those who are lucky and didn't have any issues can be taken care of by midwifes. The problem is if you aren't one of the lucky ones, you might be pretty screwed if you aren't with the doctor.
C-sections don't require general anesthesia in all cases. I had a c-section (it was medically necessary - I had to be induced due to another medical condition that endangered the baby, and the labor stalled post-water breakage, so c-section was required). I did NOT have general - instead I had a fairly standard epidural.
I thought the relatively high rate of infant mortality in the U.S. was attributed simply to the U.S. *measuring* infant mortality differently. If you define "infant" as a greater range of time, you're obviously going to see more infant deaths in the stats.
This video is very pretty and well thought out. I like it. But, if you're going to continue with this look, I hope you have a balance of casual videos where you enjoy getting your hands dirty and exploring. I always liked the videos where I shared in your experiences.
Honest question. I see how caesarians hinder natural selection but what is the alternative? If we're ready to apply them whenever necessary to save the lives of mom and child what difference does it make (evolutionary) if everyone does it all the time? Natural selection requires for some to die but of course we can't let that happen.
The alternative is direct genetic manipulation. Unfortunately, it has been associated with eugenics and Nazis, so those who would use it ethically will likely be prevented from using it very much, while those who want to use it for harm will just do it under the table.
the quote about the United States having the highest infant mortality rate in the industrialized world is misleading because the United States is also the only industrialized country that includes stillbirths and the deaths of preemies born before 30 weeks in our infant mortality statistics. these groups makeup a big portion of infant deaths. and FYI when a woman gets a cesarean she is rarely fully sedated. I enjoyed the video just clearing up a few and accuracies
This article here, www.cbsnews.com/news/u-s-infant-mortality-rate-worse-than-other-countries/ Specifically states that still births are NOT included in the US infant mortality stats, and also that preemie deaths are included because the US has the highest amount of pre 24-28 week births out of any country, and thus it wouldn't be accurate to not include it.
This phenomenon also applies to dogs. I remember my biology teacher once talked about the pug (or was it the bulldog?) that developed a big, cute head because humans wanted it that way. So, now pugs (bulldogs?) have trouble giving birth to puppies. Way to go, humanity. You've not only caused your own species to have trouble giving birth, but ruined the ability of other animals to deliver naturally and without assistance. Fortunately, pugs (bulldogs?) and humans get midwives, so that solves the problem. Yea for cultural evolution! :-) ETA: Oh, the guy talks about bulldogs. Though, the cause for that anomaly is the human selective pressure on bulldogs. Humans already perform caesarean sections of bulldog mothers, because it's the easy way out. Humans should do so on themselves too, even if it means 90% of pregnant women get caesarean sections. :-P
Either you devoted over a year to this project or somebody needs to politely tell Dr. Robert Martin that he is behind on his calendar flipping. You might want to call in Calendar Amy from Hank Green's office for the task :)
i've lived in texas my whole life. what is happening here these days for maternal care is absurd. if i got pregnant, no matter what i decided to do, i'd move
really fascinating ep and definitely a conversation starter with the obgyns in my life. really important topic and I'm glad to see you don't shy away from pointing out political decisions with pretty clear cause and effect.
also I love all that you do and am excited for the new direction you're taking! So happy you're going to bring back the dissections! That's what drew me in back in 2014! =)
The Birth Partner by Penny Simkin (who is basically the doula guru of our century!) details the reasons why the US (and some other western countries) have such a high cesarean rate and the drawbacks to both cesareans and inducing labour. This book is the standard for those looking to become a doula, birth partner (to your friend or wife), or even those people or moms who are interested in knowing more about childbirth.
In Portugal (a 'trash country', someone has said...), the rate of child mortality is 4 children for 1000 births. Something is very wrong is this department in the USA. Maybe if they did't spend so much money making wars, they would have more to protect mothers and children.
His comment on needing midwives about x million years ago reminded me of a quote I heard in college: "If prostitution is the world's oldest profession, midwifery is the second."
Kitsune1414 great quote!
his comment about texas making a decision that made 100% more infants die of birth is so typical for moronic murica, the shithole of the western world
Hunting is the oldest profession in the world.
Hannah Dyson I think that he means women assisting other women, not a profession. And since it is about women it wasn’t written down. Most records and histories were written by men so they didn’t know anything about births.
has anyone considered that the for-profit healthcare system in America is the cause of so many cesareans? Because cesareans are more expensive than delivery through the birth canal & it would get promoted more to patients
tumblenc it would be interesting to see the rates of caesarean sections in other countries where they have nationalised health services and compare them to the US's
I haven't verified this information, but I've heard that many private insurance companies won't cover 'natural' (birth-canal births), but they will cover c-sections- so out-of-pocket expenses for women would be much lower if they had a cesarean.
ohhh ok thanks for explaining
There is a megaton of information on this stuff, but here's a report from the WHO.. it's just a bit dense:
"The Global Numbers and Costs of Additionally Needed and Unnecessary Caesarean Sections Performed per Year: Overuse as a barrier to universal coverage" www.who.int/healthsystems/topics/financing/healthreport/30C-sectioncosts.pdf
oooh looks so COOL thanks :D
Glad to have you back! Great topic, too. Obviously too big of a topic to completely encompass in one video.
Still, I do wish Africa hadn't been portrayed in such broad strokes. Particularly paired with a handful of video clips from the poorest regions, it continues the unfortunate stereotype of the entire continent being one homogenized area. It was cool to get so granular as to focus on the worst of the industrialized world (Texas). It would've been enlightening to compare that to the best of the non-industrialized world.
Hope that wasn't too critical! I do love the Brain Scoop. It's really great to have it back.
You're so right, it's just unfortunate that Africa's neonatal mortality rates per country tend to be higher than global averages either way. This interactive chart from WHO is really illuminating: apps.who.int/gho/data/node.sdg.3-2-viz-3?lang=en
Cuba has a remarkably low infant mortality rate, on par with countries like Australia and Belgium, because they invest so much into their (government-supported!!) healthcare system.
What factors are leading to a higher mortality rate in countries above the global average? I'd like to know if this is a problem that we can solve (either via technological support, hygiene improvements, or otherwise).
Galakyllz I know that part of the problem is lack of medical support, sometimes a woman can live so far away from the hospital if there are any problems or if the baby starts coming it could be too late by the time they get to the hospital. I know of some charities who are building half way birthing centres where women can go when they are close to birth or having issues so that they can be closer to the hospital and have a team of doctors and midwifes on hand. cry.org.uk have a project in Cambodia which has seen amazing results!
Google "A Walk to Beautiful" This one film does a pretty good job of summing up at least one set of causal loops which April Lydia describes in her comment. Hans Rosling does a wonderful job communicating a variety of population statistics. I promise it's not as dry as it sounds. His delivery would fit very well in a Brainscoop. He has a couple great videos relevant to the question. One video simply compares the effect of education on infant and mother mortality. The results are startling.
Also, I just found this channel a few days ago and binge watched the whole series, so hello everyone...that was one messed up squirrel.
I absolutely love the sourcing of statistics in this video. Keep it up!
I was a c-section baby. I like to say I was a tumor baby, because I wasn't birthed; I was removed. :)
Happy removal day tumor baby 😛
I was a c-section baby too because the umbilical cord was wrapped around my neck. My younger brother was a vaginal birth (and we're only 13 months apart).
Same
That's awesome 😂
tumor squad!
This video was so well made! Great Job y'all!
Glasichor "y'all"
i find the skulls of children really freaky, with all those teeth crammed above their milk teeth. how does that even work? do they grow along with the growth of our first set of teeth? or later? how do teeth grow in general?
ruby r They grow in from specific stem cells that start activating when the child is about eight years old. Those stem cells are one time activation. Some researchers are trying to find ways to replicate them so when people lose teeth as adults they can grow new teeth instead of surgically removing the broken teeth and inserting artificial teeth. The problem is how to do it without upsetting people who oppose embryonic stem cells harvesting.
KebaRPG
thx i rlly wanted to to know that but couldn't be bothered to Google it ...
Great episode! I commented on your previous video that candid interviews are one of the signature aspects of this show, and your interview with Dr. Martin is a good example of that.
OK, that was a great return! Well done to everyone involved!
Rarely have I agreed with the content of a video more. Thank you for this intelligent and thoughtful video.
Ooo, this was a great one. So happy to have the BrainScoop back. Wonderful!
Those 2 laughs at the end just summed that video up perfectly..... awkward yet humorous with a touch of 'fuck having babies' hahaha
Yay! New material! Glad to have you back!
Yay for new brainscoop! Interesting topic! Crazy to think that we celebrate our 1st female doctor a 100 years ago or so, yet midwives were around for a million years!
disgusting tbh... 1000's of year of MAN made religion suppressing half the human population and crippling women.. which in turn crippled men cause they had to putt contiuned effort into beings sexist and also baring the burdens of work as women werent allowed to take care of themselves cause that means they have coin/money and can decided for themselves...
Welcome back Emily, we missed you.
The Brain Scoop is continually my favorite channel! Thank you guys for everything you do!
I'm glad to see that this channel still has brains on it. Looking fabulous.
...it still has the phrase on it.
never take it off.
why would it ever not
Bill and Melinda are a rare and precious resource . Goes to show you what truly generous people can do, even if they are billionaires.
actually, in this case, _because_ they are billionaires? - Like, I could be generous all I wanted, but if I did even a fraction of a fraction of a percent of what they did, I'd almost certainly be bankrupt.
Certainly in absolute terms. But even in relative ones: There is a base cost to living. The farther removed from that you are, the easier it is to put a fraction of your income into causes that aren't strictly for your own good.
Bill Gates is in a class of his own though, I mean he has already donated somewhere around 28 billion dollars (His net worth is currently like 75-80 billion, that is about 30-35% of his net worth), and when he dies, he's donating 95% of his wealth to charity as well.
eyesofblue86 however his good friend Warren buffett is a greedy dirty old fuck. he lobbied politicians and drove solar power industry out of Nevada to protect his own utility company.
Bill's mentality is that no one needs anything near the amount of money he has in order to survive. And it is true, no one needs the shear abundance of money he has so he donates these ridiculously large amounts of money to charities.
Anime name?
This is wonderfully done! We don't talk about the consequences of evolution very often. So it gets represented as a linear march towards perfection when you have situations like upright walking vs. outstanding intellect vs. ability to deliver safely
I always look out for "nature related" topics (i.e. wild fauna and flora) in this channel, but this was a wonderful video!
This was an incredible video , great research
I am so glad your videos are back. I really missed them! And this was a great topic. I left some critical comments, which were in no way intended to be "slams", but constructive. However, I realized I had left out the positives, and in balance, despite my serious concerns, this was a very worthwhile topic and video. I look forward to more and even better videos!
Great way to kick off the new season, I love it and want more of it !!
that "october 2015" calendar tho... XD
I noticed that too.
I noticed it too but at the time I thought, oh this must just be an old video. then I checked when the video was uploaded XD
I cannot express how much I love these videos!! Emily is always so energetic and can get me excited about anything!!! I truly appreciate these videos and I often go back and watch them because I find everything so interesting!! I even started thinking about studying biology in college!! Keep up the good work!!!!
Amazing return. I absolutely LOVE these videos!
So happy for new videos!
I had to keep pausing the video to look at all the awesome stuff in your office and on your desk.
Do you ever walk into work in the morning and go "Oh my god, I have an OFFICE! And a DESK! And both of them are full of / covered with AWESOME THINGS because my life is AWESOME!"?
I love how he keeps playing with the pelvis and the baby head XD
Excellent discussion, thank you!
Brain scoop is part of my hack schooling program
thanks for this brain scoop! that study in texas in 2011 is so relevant now that people's access to free and low cost prenatal health care etc is being threatened by legislators
I was born through emergency cesarean. My placenta detached 5 1/2 weeks before my due date and my mom, who is only 5'3 and 100 lbs., lost and entire gallon of blood. Luckily, I was developed enough to go home that day without any extensive medical care.
Note that his calendar says october 2015 and the publication date of the video says february 2017. Backlog of content and upload schedule aside, that goes to show just how much effort goes into these videos. Bravo!
"evolutionary trajection"
that's a new one, and I like
This video is incredible. Please, keep producing this type of content.
Glad to have you Back! Amazing Subject.
Would sir Martin fancy a 2017 calendar?
This video was so well done; I really enjoyed the biological anthropological focus. You answered several questions about the evolution of human birth that I have been pondering these past few months since giving birth for the first time! Also, on an unrelated note, have you seen the fabulous Google doodles highlighting the plight of the pangolin?!
bonsensical if you'd like to hear more on this, check out the documentary "tales from the royal bedchamber". they go into more detail about giving birth through the ages. it's from the BBC but you might find it on RUclips along with many other Lucy Worsley docs.
Please add captions to this, he's hard to understand. But this is awesome, I love this.
Only just found this channel today through MinuteEarth and I just have to say, Emily, you are so incredibly charming and fun to watch! ^_^ I look forward to bingeing all your videos!
The cesarean and midwife aspect of birthing is particularly ignored in this side of the world and I'm glad it was briefly discussed in this vid. I hope midwifery becomes the norm again, for our own sake.
I mean, a doma (is that the spelling) is basically a midwife with no medical training.
Albinojackrussel
It's doula.
In Finland obstericians come in and help in childbirth only if it is needed. If not needed the midwives are there for the mother and baby.
I loved this video and the topic. I can't wait to see more videos that discuss this topic and related topics focusing on human birth. It's fascinating to see the statistics and get reliable explanations. So much around this topic is so emotionally charged and I think it's extremely important to have access to quality information and research. Can't wait for more!!!
I enjoyed the video, but I have a super minor question bugging me. I know videos take a little while to come out, but was this interview filmed in October of 2015 as his calendar shows? It would take nothing away from it, but it would just be a longer lead time than I imagined.
Bahahahahaha oh no. We filmed this a few weeks ago.
This was bugging me as well, we waited a long time for a new Brain Scoop, but it seems like it was filmed in October 2015... so maybe not so new? If it was filmed a few weeks ago, why is the calendar so far out of date? It doesn't seem likely that it is just "I forgot to flip it", as the whole thing would've been replaced twice since then. How could you forget for that long? Not that I doubt what Emily says, but, it just makes me think...
I don't know. I had a calendar (with giraffes) in my office that I used for two years. The second time round, I'd just flip it once in a while, because the dates wouldn't line up with the days of the week anyway. More like a changing picture than a calendar, really.
Is the Field Museum cheating by using time machines? Because that's not fair, my local natural history has two entire floors of collection that no one can visit because they can't afford to make it safe for the public and you just blow your funds on time machines so you can get the best stuff.
I think this would've been better for Mother's Day rather than Valentine's Day, but still a really great way to come back!!
I wish I had more teachers like Emily when I was getting schooled. Granted, I would have crushed on them hard, but I'd also have learned so much more.
ding dong ding dong da ding dong ding dong, ding dong ding dong ba diddly diddle ding dong ding it still has brains on it
Another brilliant show. Very informative,
congrats about getting involved with Gates, sounds awesome!
Awesome starting video of 2017, very relevant!
Yes, yes, and yes. Thank you for this! I'd be interested in you doing a video on the evolution of diet and what we truly should be eating verses the Standard American Diet.
What a wonderful and important video. Thank you!
Around 6:18 - "...Decreasing the access to healthcare facilities actually exponentially increase the rate of infant and mother mortality."
Why this even needs to be restated in this day and age is rather beyond me.
This is smart and quite amazing content. Please continue! :D
Hooray new Brain Scoop!
This is, for me atleast, the most entertaining series on RUclips
!!!!! So excited for a new video!!!!!!
Aren't Neanderthal skulls larger than their modern human counterparts? I'd love to have a video on how that worked. Did Neanderthal infants have more flexible skulls than even human infants? Did Neanderthal skulls grow more rapidly after birth? Or did Neanderthal pelvises allow for a larger birth canal while still having bipedal movement?
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magikarpable They were less evolved for upright walking, so they must have had wider pelvises. Good question.
As a woman, the thought of having a baby parasite inside me, giving agonizing birth to it and having it end your life during "motherhood" absolutely repulses me. All while husbands and boyfriends look on with arrogant pity at not being cursed with womanhood.
Hi, Jacquelynn North..
Amazing how you got to work with them! Great video!
Yay! We missed you!
I could listen to that man for the rest of my life just constantly lmao
glad your back!
I didn't get the bulldog comparison. Plus so good to see you making videos again 😀
Many bulldogs need a cesarian delivery because of their big heads, that's how we have selected for the breed. It wouldn't be good if humans would require the same going forward, just because so many are using that method without a real medical reason for it.
So is he saying that needless Caesareans will lead to humans with features that make natural births near impossible?
Well, with natural births, natural selection would lead to babies with too big heads and too big a size would be selected out of the population, as would women with teeny tiny pelvises. With loads of c-sections, nature is no longer selecting against those traits...so it would be more like maybe bigger babies over time.
Just been directed here from Hank Green. Fab recommendation and brilliant video 😊
You know Bill Gates? Ask him why my computer keeps freezing up
I was a breech baby, my mom needed a cesarean. Watching this video reminded how lucky I was to be born in an age with good enough medical knowledge to get me out safely.
Flintstoned
To be fair, it is completely possible to give vaginal birth to a breech baby with little to no complications, it's just rarely done in the US because our doctors aren't trained on the procedure because C-section is the default decision when a breech birth seemed imminent.
Way to go Texas. Your shortsighted goal of restricting women's rights also leads to death.
Surely its a problem that will fix itself? (Either they wake up or die out.)
Not every Texan voted for it.
A Echo But not many Texans voted against it, obviously.
I disagree, roughly 43.2% (about 3,877,868) voted for Hilary Clinton. So I would consider that a lot of Texans, but you are correct that it wasn't enough. Anyway it doesn't matter how much we dislike Trump now we have to stick together and do our best as a whole.
he_who_is_nobody you guys are making me hate living in texas
4:36 -To put things into perspective, it's estimated that there's around 350 000 births a day currently. That means that around 1 in 425 women giving birth dies in the process. That's a lot (~0.24% chance).
Hey Emily, when there is time I would love to see a video on trilobites. I know you love them and so do I. Just a thought! Love your videos!
I was horrified when I first heard a couple of months ago about the infant mortality rate doubling in Texas, but I didn't know that the US as a whole had the worst infant mortality rate of developed countries.
I'm Australian and our infant mortality rate in 2015 was 3.2 per 1,000 live births and has been steadily dropping for years, eg down from 4.9 per 1,000 live births in 2005.
Nationally, in the US, it's around 6 per 1,000 live births. It was hard to find the exact number because of stats at different sources varying from 6 to 6.5 - but it's close to, or just over double of my country, which has universal healthcare, which, I think, is an enormous factor.
I love your gallery wall!
I've seen that you and minuteearth have done these colab videos with the gates foundation. Are there other colab videos with other youtubers? How can I find them?
Emily you're so great! Loved this
I read that lying on your back is the worst birthing position.
Maybe I misheard, but why would you have full anesthesia for caesarian? For me it was a 30 minutes long surgery start to finish, with local anesthesia. And it was emergency one, too - I imagine planned one would've been even better, without all the unnecessary pain and worry around it. YEs it is a major surgery, but it is a pretty safe one as far as surgeries go, and it helps prevent birth traumas for mums and bubs, especially given that newborns seem to be getting bigger and bigger.
The stats comparing midwives-assisted clildbirth cases with obstetrician assisted ones tend to not control for the simple fact that more complicated pregnancies usually end up with obstetricians in the first place, so lengthly labour might very well be due to that, and not due to who's assisting. And don't get me started on midwives. They are all good and well for uncomplicated pregnancies and textbook births, sure. But they seem to lack hard scientific knowledge and the boundaries of their responsibilities - i.e. when to pass the case to a doctor. I had a hell of a third trimester thanks to my midwife (otherwise a nice lady with the best intentions and tonnes of experience - just not with the scientific approach) trying to make me feel better instead of doing blood tests to address my concerns. This is a common enough complaint. Those who are lucky and didn't have any issues can be taken care of by midwifes. The problem is if you aren't one of the lucky ones, you might be pretty screwed if you aren't with the doctor.
C-sections don't require general anesthesia in all cases. I had a c-section (it was medically necessary - I had to be induced due to another medical condition that endangered the baby, and the labor stalled post-water breakage, so c-section was required). I did NOT have general - instead I had a fairly standard epidural.
I wonder if someone is going to send Dr. Martin a new calendar bc of this vid.
Thumbnail of baby skulls in combination with the ending "It still has brains on it" was a tad creepy this time :D
I thought the relatively high rate of infant mortality in the U.S. was attributed simply to the U.S. *measuring* infant mortality differently. If you define "infant" as a greater range of time, you're obviously going to see more infant deaths in the stats.
Did you conduct this interview in October 2015?.. as it shows on his Calendar.
This video is very pretty and well thought out. I like it. But, if you're going to continue with this look, I hope you have a balance of casual videos where you enjoy getting your hands dirty and exploring.
I always liked the videos where I shared in your experiences.
Bill: ''MAKE A VIDEO ABOUT BABY SKULLS''
Emilie: ''OKAY''
Humans are amazingly complex and intricate. It's truly beautiful.
Honest question. I see how caesarians hinder natural selection but what is the alternative? If we're ready to apply them whenever necessary to save the lives of mom and child what difference does it make (evolutionary) if everyone does it all the time? Natural selection requires for some to die but of course we can't let that happen.
The problem is unnecessary c-sections. Too many doctors default to them for convenience instead of using them only when required.
The alternative is direct genetic manipulation. Unfortunately, it has been associated with eugenics and Nazis, so those who would use it ethically will likely be prevented from using it very much, while those who want to use it for harm will just do it under the table.
@@rubiscas Actually only the medically necessary c-sections have effect evolution.
The brain scoop is back!!
Now I have something interesting to watch tonight 🎉🎉🎉🎉
the quote about the United States having the highest infant mortality rate in the industrialized world is misleading because the United States is also the only industrialized country that includes stillbirths and the deaths of preemies born before 30 weeks in our infant mortality statistics. these groups makeup a big portion of infant deaths. and FYI when a woman gets a cesarean she is rarely fully sedated. I enjoyed the video just clearing up a few and accuracies
This article here, www.cbsnews.com/news/u-s-infant-mortality-rate-worse-than-other-countries/ Specifically states that still births are NOT included in the US infant mortality stats, and also that preemie deaths are included because the US has the highest amount of pre 24-28 week births out of any country, and thus it wouldn't be accurate to not include it.
This phenomenon also applies to dogs. I remember my biology teacher once talked about the pug (or was it the bulldog?) that developed a big, cute head because humans wanted it that way. So, now pugs (bulldogs?) have trouble giving birth to puppies. Way to go, humanity. You've not only caused your own species to have trouble giving birth, but ruined the ability of other animals to deliver naturally and without assistance. Fortunately, pugs (bulldogs?) and humans get midwives, so that solves the problem. Yea for cultural evolution! :-)
ETA: Oh, the guy talks about bulldogs. Though, the cause for that anomaly is the human selective pressure on bulldogs. Humans already perform caesarean sections of bulldog mothers, because it's the easy way out. Humans should do so on themselves too, even if it means 90% of pregnant women get caesarean sections. :-P
Either you devoted over a year to this project or somebody needs to politely tell Dr. Robert Martin that he is behind on his calendar flipping. You might want to call in Calendar Amy from Hank Green's office for the task :)
Just found you. Just subscribed. Have you done scishow?
i've lived in texas my whole life. what is happening here these days for maternal care is absurd. if i got pregnant, no matter what i decided to do, i'd move
It's either they didn't post this right away or Dr Martin doesn't change his calendar
Great video! Love science nerds
hey, the annual letter link doesn't work for me. Am I the only one?
really fascinating ep and definitely a conversation starter with the obgyns in my life. really important topic and I'm glad to see you don't shy away from pointing out political decisions with pretty clear cause and effect.
The chart at 5:54 is for maternal deaths, not infant ones. Source: the same one in the chart.
Guh, thank you for pointing that out. We'll make an annotation.
makes it that much more frightening.
also I love all that you do and am excited for the new direction you're taking! So happy you're going to bring back the dissections! That's what drew me in back in 2014! =)
The Birth Partner by Penny Simkin (who is basically the doula guru of our century!) details the reasons why the US (and some other western countries) have such a high cesarean rate and the drawbacks to both cesareans and inducing labour. This book is the standard for those looking to become a doula, birth partner (to your friend or wife), or even those people or moms who are interested in knowing more about childbirth.
why is his calendar on Oct 2015? is that when you filmed that footage?
Great video!
In Portugal (a 'trash country', someone has said...), the rate of child mortality is 4 children for 1000 births. Something is very wrong is this department in the USA. Maybe if they did't spend so much money making wars, they would have more to protect mothers and children.