birth
Sign in to saveright|thumb|Lambing: the mother licks the first lamb while giving birth to the second Birth is the act or process of bearing or bringing forth offspring, also referred to in technical contexts as parturition. In mammals, the process is initiated by hormones which cause the muscular walls of the uterus to contract, expelling the fetus at a developmental stage when it is ready to feed and breathe.
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Birth is the biological process by which a mother's body expels a developed offspring into the world, triggered by hormones that make the uterus contract. It matters because it's how mammals, including humans, transition from developing inside the mother to being able to breathe and feed independently.
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Article
9 sectionsContents
- Human childbirth
- Other mammals
- Cattle
- Dogs
- Marsupials
- Other animals
- See also
- References
- Cited texts
right|thumb|Lambing: the mother licks the first lamb while giving birth to the second Birth is the act or process of bearing or bringing forth offspring, also referred to in technical contexts as parturition. In mammals, the process is initiated by hormones which cause the muscular walls of the uterus to contract, expelling the fetus at a developmental stage when it is ready to feed and breathe.
In some species, the offspring is precocial and can move around almost immediately after birth but in others, it is altricial and completely dependent on parenting.