Moon pregnancies and child development

On Jan 12, 2007, at 02:15 UTC, Omar E. Vega wrote:

> Perhaps it is possible to have normal pregnancies in Space, but I
> doubt it. In Space people will work in 0-G as a routine and switch
> back and forth from 0-G to 1-G. Why? Because a large portion of the
> jobs will be in assembling solar satelites, space carriers and
> things like that.

Some will, but certainly not all of them. The whole point of a space
colony is that it's a place to live -- people will be doctors,
schoolteachers, computer programmers, cooks, musicians, actors,
engineers, and everything else that people are here on Earth. A small
portion will be space construction workers.

> Now, imagine, just imagine (I need confirmation in here) that the
> first couple of day is critical for the normal development of the
> fetus.... What will you do? Forbid women to work at space?

No, no more than we forbid women to drink or smoke, or require them to
take folate -- yet a woman who's trying to get pregnant generally
forgoes drinking and smoking and starts taking folate.

Moreover, I find it hard to believe that the first few days matter
much. The embryo is, at most, a little ball of cells at that point,
floating neutrally buoyant in fluid. It's essentially weightless
already. Plus, women who are a few days pregnant still sleep
horizontally, go swimming, ski, parachute, etc., and the babies turn
out fine.

Now, later in the pregnancy, when bones are forming, it's possible that
gravity matters a bit more... though it still seems unlikely, since the
fetus is still neutrally bouyant and may in fact be in any of several
different positions. My guess is that gravity doesn't matter much
until the baby's born.

And finally, even if it does matter, it's just plain wrong to say "you
can't have pregnancies in space." At worst you'd have to say "women
who frequently work in zero-G should avoid getting pregnant." I think
it's obvious that a woman who spends all day every day in a fully
Earthlike environment is going to be just fine, even if that
environment happens to be a space colony.

Best,
- Joe

Joe Strout -- joe@...