Postcards from the Bleeding Edge Pregnancy and birth in space
Every so often I get on a google-driven research track that's
interesting. I got asked, recently, "what are the prospects for
pregnancy and childbirth in a zero-g/microgravity environment"?
That intrigued me. So I googled. The answers were surprising. We
don't know . In the 43 years since we've entered space not one
experiment has attempted to go from impregnation of a mammalian
species to birth, and beyond, in space. The preliminary results
are intriguing, however. Impregnation didn't work... The closest
thing to a comprehensive exploration of the subject ... male and
female rats were allowed to mate in space. No pregnancies
resulted, but post-flight laparotomy showed that the ovulation
and fertilization did occur in the rats, though for some reason
embryogenesis did not proceed in the normal way. Later, the same
rats were mated with nonflight rats and all the litters were
found to be normal. But pregnant rats survived spaceflight and
gave birth m