Having a baby on Mars? You may be in for a difficult time

As a kind of living embodiment of the dangers of techno-optimism, Elon Musk recently declare it means creating a self-sustaining settlement of one million people on Mars within the next 30 years. But few talk about the elephant in the room: “self-support” means that women must get pregnant, give birth and somehow not die… on Mars.

Here on earth, we have breathable air, global supply chains, hospitals and medical specialists, UNICEF the reports In 2020, we lost 287,000 women to maternal deaths. The majority of these deaths occurred in areas where access to maternal care is difficult. For example, in the US in 2020, about 21 women out of every 100,000 died from causes related to motherhood. In countries such as Chad, Nigeria and South Sudan, this number is over 1000 per 100,000. And those are just them dead six weeks postpartum – morbidity rates continue to increase beyond this. So let’s think about a place like Mars: 225 million kilometers from Earth, 40 percent of Earth’s gravity, almost no protection from space radiation, and planet-wide dust storms. How do we think these astro-frontier women will fare?

Only about 15% of astronauts have ever been womentherefore, we currently have no data on pregnancy in space and even less on female astronauts in general. On Earth, under ideal conditions, it has suitable hetero-coitus about a 25 percent chance to create a viable pregnancy. But it might not be possible To get pregnant on Mars. Of the smallest amount the data we haveit appears that microgravity may impair the ability of the uterus to prepare for implantation of an egg. On Earth, you can improve rates with IVF, but SpaceX has not released any plans to send mass repro labs. Maybe we should send astronauts with a freezer full of frozen sperm, a turkey baster and a prayer?

However, if they were to become pregnant, the conditions on Mars would hardly be safe for the mother’s health. The microgravity of orbiting space stations is very bad for the muscular and cardiovascular systems: Astronauts orbiting the Earth suffer. bone loss, muscle atrophy and their vision degrades over time. That’s why the heart changes shape at zero gravity, moving from an ovoid to a sphere of fat, and the muscles that normally constrict and support the atrophy of blood vessels, it’s especially worrisome that there are mothers here on Earth with pre-existing cardiovascular problems. it is much more likely to suffer serious illness or death.

Prenatal care can help. UNICEF today recommends at least 4 visits to a health care provider during pregnancy. How will pregnant astronauts receive this minimum level of care? Perhaps they should all be maternal-fetal medicine specialists with experience in field screenings. Life-saving medications are also a problem: oxytocin, which is needed to stop postpartum hemorrhage, is a problem. cool at stable temperatures – add coolers to the startup list later. And if the refrigerators fail? The window for trips to Mars only opens every two years, and it takes six months reach here. Even under ideal conditions, there will be many drugs expire before the supply ships arrived. 1 in 8 is also true mothers suffer from postpartum depression. Due to the great distance between Earth and Mars, calls to Earth providers will be at their maximum 20 minute delayso there will be no real-time chat for quick mental health help. Should we make all astronauts psychiatrists too?

But there is a better way. Mars can be our next moon, but the technological payoff may not be about rockets. We could use Mars as an excuse to engage deeply in research on women’s health here on Earth, even leaning into research on mammalian reproduction in space. Developing shelf-stable medications like oxytocin would immediately benefit women, right here on Earth. Although the extraterrestrial environment may be too dangerous for human pregnancy, fetuses can develop well in artificial wombs if we can build them. This technology can reduce maternal morbidity and mortality, giving women more options.

Human pregnancy, birth and postpartum recovery without proper medical care causes so much pain and death. Not all the time, not every time, but an unforgivable part of the time. We could choose to do better. If we’re not willing to do that for women on Earth, let’s say we did it for Mars.

By Kelly and Zach Weinersmith A city on Mars (Penguin) It’s the last chance for the New Scientist Book Club: sign up here to read along with our members. She is the author of Cat Bohannon Eve: How the Woman’s Body Guided 200 Million Years of Human Evolution.