Why Pregnant Women Don’t Tip Over

From the New York Times

Anthropologists studying the human spine have found that women’s lower vertebrae evolved in ways that reduce back pressure during pregnancy, when the mass of the abdomen grows by nearly one-third and the center of mass shifts forward considerably.

. . .

If evolution provided relief for women in pregnancy, one might ask, what about the equally awkward morphology of men with beer guts?

Also see:

Fetal load and the evolution of lumbar lordosis in bipedal hominins in Nature.

*

I just have to say that *I* feel safer, knowing scientists are not afraid to tackle the really tough questions.

Also: I just *love* the term fetal load. "How are you today, honey? How is our fetal load?" Use that in a poem.