From Michael Hutchinson
Gillian Bentley proposes that women evolved enlarged breasts so that babies
with shorter faces would not suffocate while feeding
(14 April, p 18). While
this is a possible explanation, cause and effect may have been reversed. Had
women developed enlarged breasts under another, earlier evolutionary pressure,
this would subsequently have allowed shorter faces to evolve.
Drawing on the aquatic ape hypothesis (25 November 2000, p 28), when mothers
fed infants in the relative safety of the water, enlarged breasts would firstly
have kept the nipple clear of the water, and secondly have cushioned it away
from the chest, thus preventing wave motion from dislodging the infant and
interrupting the feed.
Tadley, Hampshire
