ReviewPhilosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences2015
Between Scylla and Charybdis: renegotiating resolution of the 'obstetric dilemma' in response to ecological change.
Review in Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 28 papers.
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Who cites it
28 citing papers in PubMed.
- Humans are not unique: difficult birth is common in placental mammals.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2026Review
- Organ Size and Metabolic Rate Co-Vary with Dimensions of the Obstetric Pelvis: The Metabolic Coordination of Childbirth Hypothesis.American journal of biological anthropology · 2026Article
- Obstetrical Constraints and the Origin of Extended Postnatal Brain Maturation in Hominin Evolution.Biology · 2024Article
- Reconsidering the developmental origins of adult disease paradigm: The 'metabolic coordination of childbirth' hypothesis.Evolution, medicine, and public health · 2024Review
- There is an obstetrical dilemma: Misconceptions about the evolution of human childbirth and pelvic form.American journal of biological anthropology · 2023Review
- Flexible embryonic shell allies large offspring size and anti-predatory protection in viviparous snails.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Evaluation of dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry compared to magnetic resonance imaging for collecting measurements of the human bony pelvis.American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council · 2022Article
- Variability and the form-function framework in evolutionary biomechanics and human locomotion.Evolutionary human sciences · 2022Review
- Squatting, pelvic morphology and a reconsideration of childbirth difficulties.Evolution, medicine, and public health · 2022Article
- The obstetrical dilemma hypothesis: there's life in the old dog yet.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2021Article
- Sex differences in the pelvis did not evolve de novo in modern humans.Nature ecology & evolution · 2021Article
- Biomechanical trade-offs in the pelvic floor constrain the evolution of the human birth canal.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2021Article
- Evolution of Lactase Persistence: Turbo-Charging Adaptation in Growth Under the Selective Pressure of Maternal Mortality?Frontiers in physiology · 2021Article
- Lack of head sparing following third-trimester caloric restriction among Tanzanian Maasai.PloS one · 2020Article
- Mate Choice and the Persistence of Maternal Mortality.Reproductive sciences (Thousand Oaks, Calif.) · 2019Review
- Humans as inverted bats: A comparative approach to the obstetric conundrum.American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council · 2019Review
- Secular changes in body height predict global rates of caesarean section.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2019Article
- The Dual Burden of Malnutrition Increases the Risk of Cesarean Delivery: Evidence From India.Frontiers in public health · 2018Article
- Life history trade-offs and the partitioning of maternal investment: Implications for health of mothers and offspring.Evolution, medicine, and public health · 2018Review
- Body composition and susceptibility to type 2 diabetes: an evolutionary perspective.European journal of clinical nutrition · 2017Review
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Abstract
Hominin evolution saw the emergence of two traits-bipedality and encephalization-that are fundamentally linked because the fetal head must pass through the maternal pelvis at birth, a scenario termed the 'obstetric dilemma'. While adaptive explanations for bipedality and large brains address adult phenotype, it is brain and pelvic growth that are subject to the obstetric dilemma. Many contemporary populations experience substantial maternal and perinatal morbidity/mortality from obstructed labour, yet there is increasing recognition that the obstetric dilemma is not fixed and is affected by ecological change. Ecological trends may affect growth of the pelvis and offspring brain to different extents, while the two traits also differ by a generation in the timing of their exposure. Two key questions arise: how can the fit between the maternal pelvis and the offspring brain be 'renegotiated' as the environment changes, and what nutritional signals regulate this process? I argue that the potential for maternal size to change across generations precludes birthweight being under strong genetic influence. Instead, fetal growth tracks maternal phenotype, which buffers short-term ecological perturbations. Nevertheless, rapid changes in nutritional supply between generations can generate antagonistic influences on maternal and offspring traits, increasing the risk of obstructed labour.
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