Motherhood

Women are born with all tools, instincts and possibilities to develop skills to become and be a mother. For ages and ages the blueprint has been improved to guarantee that the vast majority of women is capable to conceive, carry, birth and nurture her offspring into independance. The blueprint, however, does not include the need to actually do this all by herself. DaSilvas’ research shows that very early in human development newborns are much bigger than newborns of comparable primates. The benefits of being born bigger apparently outweigh the downsides of having to carry and feed a very big child. Having big children probably was the reason that humans needed to practice allo-parenting (parenting not by just one parent, but by more members of the social group together) quite early in human development. In cultures where this still is the cultural norm postpartum depression is a rare occurrence, according to Kendall-Tackett. These mothers get help with feeding and nurturing their newborns and with other tasks in the postpartum period.
Kendall-Tackett K: How Other Cultures Prevent Postpartum Depression; Social Structures that Protect New Mothers’ Mental Health. http://www.uppitysciencechick.com/how_other_cultures.pdf
Kendall-Tackett K: A new paradigm for depression in new mothers: the central role of
inflammation and how breastfeeding and anti-inflammatory treatments protect maternal mental health. International Breastfeeding Journal 2007, 2:6.
DeSilva JM: A shift toward birthing relatively large infants early in human evolution. Biological Sciences - Anthropology. PNAS published ahead of print January 3, 2011, doi:10.1073/pnas.1003865108