If elephants can shut down the birthing process what happens to the baby?

Question

If elephants can shut down the birthing process what happens to the baby?

Answer 1

Actually almost all animals can shut down the birthing process.  Since living in the wild, danger can approach at any time, so the animal releases chemicals that shut it down for a while and allow the animal to flee for safety or whatever.  

Humans can actually slow down the birthing process.  If the woman in labor is scared then her body naturally tenses up causing for a slower and more painful delivery.  Thats why its important to relax and take deep breaths to keep the body from tensing up.  

Nothing happens to the baby when this happens.

Answer 2

they don't really shut down the birthing process, they just slow it down if they feel scared or in danger so as to protect the unborn infant from any preditors that may try to harm/kill it

Answer 3

If a mother elephant mother feels threatened when her labour starts, she can delay the birthing process for up to 48 hours and still give birth to a healthy calf. However, any longer than this and the calf will die in her womb. Sometimes if the calf is already dead when labour begins, the mother halts the labour, retaining the dead calf inside her - in either of the last two cases, the calf can remain inside her indefinitely. In humans this would usually result in infection and, if it was not treated and the baby was not removed, death. This does not seem to be the case in elephants - the calf becomes almost mummified inside the womb, leaving the mother with no detrimental effects (except that she cannot breed). I used to be a zookeeper, and this happened to one of our elephants. It was felt that it was better to leave the dead calf inside her than to remove it through a Caesarian section, which is a risky operation for an elephant. She is still doing well.

Answer 4

It's a temporary thing, in case the mother senses any threat while she's giving birth.  Basically, the baby stays inside, nice and healthy as the mother runs to a safer place.  In most cases this 'shut down' is relatively short (I'm not sure, but if you do research you will find out how long, perhaps as much as one or two months, since elephants are pregnant for nearly two years ... this is not a 'long time' to them) but if the shut down is forced to go on too long, the baby elephant will start to 'break up' and be shed as a 'miscarriage' or the mother elephant dies and the baby along with her.

Answer 5

aborted or on pause.

Answer 6

It dies...know duh....