Floating Babies and Zero-Gravity Birth: What Space Pregnancy Might Actually Involve
1 min read
Summary
As plans for human missions to Mars accelerate, questions are being raised about what such excursions might mean for fertility among other physiological considerations.
A return trip to the planet would present more than enough time for a pregnancy to be conceived and carried to full term.
Clinical research on Earth has shown that there are risks to the human embryo in the first few weeks of pregnancy, with roughly two-thirds of embryos failing to reach full term.
While microgravity would make conception and carrying a pregnancy awkward,birth and the care of a newborn would be far more difficult in zero gravity, where fluids and people float,making delivering a baby and caring for one a far messier and more complicated process.
There are also dangers from exposure to cosmic rays, with these high-energy particles able to cause serious cellular damage, including DNA mutations that increase the risk of cancer.
Until such time as we can protect embryos from radiation and prevent premature birth,space pregnancy remains high risk.
