How did mankind ever work out 'where babies come from'???

[RememberToPlaywiththeKids]

Seriously - 9 months from sex to bubs - how did anyone ever work out the cause and effect??

well I suppose infertility is a failure of the "files" to transfer internally >

Broken, I always think that about animals, too - do they know? I've been around cows, and it's odd how although you'd think they'd all do it by instinct, some just don't seem to get it and are terrified - and of course you can't exactly tell a heifer when to push or reassure it it'll all be ok!

I didn't know that cows didn't always know what to do LittleRedDragon. I have no experience of any animals birthing but I did always think that they all knew and just got on with it.

I sometimes wonder if the first human females had very strong instincts, much stronger than we have now. How did they know that they had to cut the cord and that a placenta would come out as well as a baby?

The White Goddess by Robert Graves is another fascinating book about ancient belief systems not unlike the Golden Bough.

In pre-classical ancient Greece pregnancy was thought to be caused by the North Wind and the women alledgedly kept the true cause to themselves and let men think it was the weather

"the women alledgedly kept the true cause to themselves and let men think it was the weather"

I like the thought that women were a tiny bit sneaky about the whole business; Seems like a good way of keeping control of their bodies.

Am PMSL @ Baroque's "file transfer". Classic!!

And [oh shit] at the MIL who confessed she had no idea what went where on her wedding night. That's funny in a really sad way - shame on her mother (or absent a mother, other female relatives) for not clueing her in.

Gosh - this grew after I last looked {grin}

I reckon it was probably quite common for young folks to get married "in the olden days" (when sex wasn't dicussed) and have no clue what to do!

I remember years ago reading some autobiography (or whatever) by a GP telling the story of a young couple coming in and wondering why they couldn't conceive. After some gentle questioning he discovered they were cluless about what they were supposed to be doing! So he explained!

And someone asked about yoghurt I think? Well the Mongolian (well, some nomadic people anyway) used to carry their milk in goat's stomach bags and the bacteria caused the milk to curdle. They obviously tested it and discovered it was still OK - voila! This was apparently about 2,000 years ago.

I love all this sort of stuff - wondering how people figured things out

I figured yoga was probably accidental - still wondering about butter, though.

They probably just knew they had to detach the baby from the placenta after it landed in their lap. Then probably bit it.

YOGA???? Oops. Sorry, I obviously meant YOGURT!!

Have yoga on the brain, teacher training course starts tonight :o

Salmo, eeek, I just had a :( thought - I wonder how many babies and mums bled to death died before they figured out tying a knot in the cord at both ends before biting/cutting it :( :( :(

The cord, not the baby or the placenta - obviously

Hmm - maybe initially they bit and that clamped it so they knew that this stopped the bleeding? Then if it continued they would figure out to tourniquet etc.??
Flying by the seat of my pants now

:o at biting placenta - that's put me right off my coffee :o

Alcohol!

Lets put this fruity mix with some mould and leave it....

Leave it too long it will kill me - leave it too short it will taste horrible.

Just right - it is delicious and gets me pissed

I've helped a few cats deliver and they certainly don't always know what's going on, or what to do when a kitten appears (one cat picked the umbilical cord up in her mouth and started swinging the kitten around by it until I intervened with a scissors!) They're also usually bloody terrified.

I'd imagine it was similar for early humans as well.... instinct is a wonderful thing but it doesn't provide all the information needed.

I also heard a story (urban legend?) about a young married couple who went to the gp with fertility problems. After some probing questions he discovered they'd been using the back passage!

jacksmania.... I read somewhere that butter was discovered when some travellers were transporting cream in packs on a donkeys back along a rough road... when they got to their destination they had butter in the jars instead of cream. No idea if that's true or not though

LOL, that would do it!

Caveperson :o

Sorry, just struck my funnybone.

I imagine it was like this: piece of meat accidentally falls into fire. Shit, it's ruined! Hmmm... smells rather good, actually. Nibble. YUMMY!!!

But there is documented evidence as to how they invented

hahahahahaha - I'm loving the YouTube April Fools

I like imagine in another few million years people may be looking around at really basic stuff like plastic and saying 'gosh, I wonder how early humans came up with this eh?'