Re: AAH

david l burkhead (david8@dax.cc.uakron.edu)
11 Jul 1996 03:50:17 GMT

In article <rfoyDuCx5J.FJn@netcom.com> rfoy@netcom.com (Richard Foy) writes:
>In article <4s1de4$rd2@kira.cc.uakron.edu>,
>david l burkhead <david8@dax.cc.uakron.edu> wrote:
>>In article <rfoyDuCKGv.G2A@netcom.com> rfoy@netcom.com (Richard Foy) writes:
>>
>>[ 8< ]
>>
>>>Did you read Karfen's post about the LaManns birthing classes?
>>
>> Yes. I've also seen a TV special on it some years ago. However,
>>the time I saw that special I happened to be dating a nurse. I asked
>>her about it and was told that the footage for those films is rather,
>>well, "hand picked." The "accident" rate for this form of birth is, I
>>was told, rather high.
>
>And of course that was scientific data.

More "scientific" than any TV puff piece. A health care
professional with experience in the field probably knows more about it
than you or I.

>> Also a baby holding its breath before breathing is induced is
>>hardly surprising. Likewise, a baby kicking its legs and waving its
>>arms (which Karen didn't mention) is something baby's do in general.
>>Hardly evidence of anything.
>
>And I assume that you have data showing that baby chimps, and other
>apes etc do the same thing?

Relevance? Human baby's kick their legs and wave their arms.
Most animals I've seen _also_ kick their legs. I don't have much
experience with chimps so I can't say offhand.

However, it's up to the one's trying to claim that there's some
remarkable difference to show that the difference exists. Perhaps you
have data that baby chimps and other apes do _not_ kick their legs and
wave their arms as a common thing?

You see, it's up to those proposing the hypothesis to provide
evidence for the hypothesis. Okay, newborns kick their legs in water.
Well and good. But they _also_ kick their legs when _not_ in water.
Thus, leg kicking is a general newborn behavior. It is not something
special about their being in water. Thus, the "in water" part of the
claim is irrelevant and the kicking has no discernable connection to
being in water. The result is that "kicking" is not evidence of any
"instinctual swimming" in newborns.

-- 

David L. Burkhead                    "If I had eight hours to cut down

david8@dax.cc.uakron.edu             a tree, I'd spend seven sharpening

FAX:  330-253-4490                   my axe." Attributed to Abraham

SpaceCub                             Lincoln