How does the body decide "Yep, it's time!"

[New_Wife]

I've tried finding articles and haven't come across anything. All I can find are tips to naturally induce labor. But I know the body won't go unless its ready.. so..

What makes the body decide it's time to go into labor?

 

[melfy77]

Maybe something to do with the hormones? I have no idea. But with my daughter, I am convinced she was just running out of room and decided she wanted out So she broke my water lol

 

[LoolaBear]

when baby's lungs are fully mature 100% they set off a chain reaction through hormone releases that allow the body to go into labour.

 

[Mrs Bee]

I don't know but it's truly a miracle how our bodies work!

 

[tristansmum]

From my understanding no one really knows. If they did they would be able to stop pre mature births and no one would go two weeks overdue.

 

[My_First]

From my understanding no one really knows. If they did they would be able to stop pre mature births and no one would go two weeks overdue.

Exactly this. No one really knows.

 

[ash211]

when baby's lungs are fully mature 100% they set off a chain reaction through hormone releases that allow the body to go into labour.

Wow that's crazy, we're amazing aren't we?

 

[Sarahrei]

I read an article in Todays Parent (Canadian magazine) that said what happens is our body reached a metabolic breaking point, which is why we go into labour. Pretty much our body can no longer sustain two life forms, and boots the babe out. That ideally, we would be pregnant much longer if you look at apes etc, our babies are born pretty useless to the world but our metabolism can't handle growing a child for that long.

It was just a theory, but it was interesting!

 

[NewlyWedFifi]

I read an article in Todays Parent (Canadian magazine) that said what happens is our body reached a metabolic breaking point, which is why we go into labour. Pretty much our body can no longer sustain two life forms, and boots the babe out. That ideally, we would be pregnant much longer if you look at apes etc, our babies are born pretty useless to the world but our metabolism can't handle growing a child for that long.

It was just a theory, but it was interesting!

Fascinating theory. I always wondered why mother nature would allow humans to give birth to helpless creatures when other mammals have pretty competent newborns. Maybe because we have no natural predators our young can take their time maturing outside the womb since there's no one trying to eat them?

 

[Sarahrei]

I read an article in Todays Parent (Canadian magazine) that said what happens is our body reached a metabolic breaking point, which is why we go into labour. Pretty much our body can no longer sustain two life forms, and boots the babe out. That ideally, we would be pregnant much longer if you look at apes etc, our babies are born pretty useless to the world but our metabolism can't handle growing a child for that long.

It was just a theory, but it was interesting!

Fascinating theory. I always wondered why mother nature would allow humans to give birth to helpless creatures when other mammals have pretty competent newborns. Maybe because we have no natural predators our young can take their time maturing outside the womb since there's no one trying to eat them?

That was pretty much the theory! They said that baby apes can usually crawl within days, if not hours, but for our baby to be that developed that we would be pregnant for almost 2 years!! NO WAY!

It was really neat to read though.

 

[BubsMom17]

Here is a good, but a little complicated, article on how the mechanics and biology of labor starts:

https://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_causes_labor_to_start

Also, I learned when I was an anthropology major that the more complex socially a species is, the more dependent the young are on the adults in its life. So for humans, we are an immensely complicated and social species. We have the resources available to us to support a child for a long time. We have the support of other humans (in theory... today's society doesn't always reflect that) to help us raise our children, to help with feeding, and to help protect each other from harm. An animal like... a bear maybe... has only herself to care for herself and her young. The cub must mature quickly in order to ensure the survival of itself and its mother the best chance. Also, it takes the brains of humans the longest amount of time to develop than any other creature on the planet. Our young need to be "babied" to allow the full development to take place. While ape, elephant,and dolphin babies may physically develop faster than humans, socially their development is relatively slow. They stay with the groups up until they are adults learning skills for up to decades at times. This is indicative of their high intelligence since it takes their brains a lengthy amount of time to mature.

Now, I think you have had you nerd fill of the day. You're welcome!