As a living embodiment of the dangers of technological optimism, Elon Musk recently declared He wants to build a self-sustaining settlement of 1 million people on Mars over the next 30 years. But few people talk about the elephant in the room. “Self-reliance” means a woman gets pregnant on Mars, gives birth, and somehow manages to avoid dying.
Here on Earth – Where Breathable Air, Global Supply Chains, Hospitals and Health Professionals Are – UNICEF report In 2020, 287,000 women lost their lives to childbirth-related deaths. The majority of these deaths occurred in areas with poor access to maternal care. For example, in 2020 in the United States, approximately 21 women per 100,000 died from childbirth-related causes. In countries such as Chad, Nigeria and South Sudan, the number exceeds 1,000 per 100,000 people. And they are exactly the data we havemicrogravity appears to be able to impair the uterus' ability to prepare for egg implantation. On Earth, rates can be improved with in vitro fertilization, but SpaceX has not announced plans to ship large-scale reproduction labs. Maybe we should send an astronaut with a freezer full of frozen sperm, a turkey baster, and a prayer?
If a pregnancy nevertheless occurs, the environment on Mars is unlikely to be safe for the mother's health. The microgravity of an orbiting space station clearly has negative effects on the musculoskeletal and cardiovascular systems, and astronauts orbiting Earth suffer. bone loss, muscle atrophy and their Visual acuity deteriorates …
can It may be the next moonshot, but the technological payoff may not be about rockets. We can use Mars as an excuse to go deeper into women's health care research on Earth while also leaning into mammalian reproductive research in space. Developing a shelf-stable drug like oxytocin could immediately benefit women here and on Earth. Although extraterrestrial environments may ultimately prove too dangerous for human pregnancies, if an artificial womb could be created, a fetus could develop successfully inside it. This technology has the potential to reduce maternal morbidity and mortality while giving women more options.
Without proper medical care, human pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum recovery can lead to great suffering and death. Not every time, but an unforgivable amount of time. You can also choose a better method. If we don't want to do it for women on Earth, let's say we did it for Mars.
Kelly and Zach Weinersmith Mars city (Penguin) is the New Scientist Book Club's latest pick. Sign up here to read with our members. Cat Bohannon is the author of Eve: How the female body drove 200 million years of human evolution.
topic:
Source: www.newscientist.com
