title: The history of vaginal birth.
abstract: Vaginal delivery, as known today, is a still unfinished product that originated hundreds of million years ago, much before mammals evolved on land. In this article, we will discuss the way in which our direct ancestors were born over the eons until the present day, focusing on the factors that presented substantial changes in how birth occurred, in relation to our earlier ancestors. The history begins with the first amniotes around 300 million years ago and ends with the appearance of the first Homo sapiens around 160,000 years ago.
authors.affiliation: Department of Gynecology, Universidade Federal do Rio Janeiro, Rua Moncorvo Filho, Centro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. raphaelcmparente@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Raphael Câmara Medeiros
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Parente
authors.forename: Lílian Paglarelli
authors.initials: LP
authors.lastname: Bergqvist
authors.forename: Marina Bento
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Soares
authors.forename: Olimpio Barbosa Moraes
authors.initials: OB
authors.lastname: Filho
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D005260:Female; D005580:Fossils; D006801:Humans; D008322:Mammals / Q000502:physiology*; D036801:Parturition / Q000502:physiology*; D011247:Pregnancy