Strictly speaking, In the Womb isn’t really a great documentary — it doesn’t capture any astonishing scenery, doesn’t use dazzling 3D technology, and doesn’t even have a pleasant-sounding narrator. But I like it a great deal, because what it records is the process by which an individual life comes into being from nothing — the footage feels grounded and sincere, and in this sprawling, chaotic world, it’s precisely because of life that everything seems endlessly wondrous. It’s divided into two parts: one on animals, one on humans. The animal section covers the development of dogs, dolphins, and elephants in the womb, while the human section focuses on the more unusual cases of triplets and quadruplets. There’s not much point saying more about a documentary — you have to watch it yourself to really feel it — so let me just jot down a few facts I found interesting.

Dolphin sexual behavior, like that of humans, isn’t only for reproduction — it’s also always a way of bonding with companions; dolphins can mate 365 days a year. Dolphin foreplay is very long.

This reminded me of a question that’s puzzled me for a long time — why is it that only human females experience sexual pleasure? There are many explanations — for instance, that most animals use the “doggy” position, which doesn’t stimulate the clitoris; that the duration of penetration is short, with dolphins, lions, and the like ejaculating within seconds; or that animals simply don’t experience sexual pleasure at all. I lean toward the second explanation, because humans also feel pleasure in the doggy position, while the last explanation denies humanity’s animal instincts altogether — meaning human sexual pleasure would be something that emerged in the course of human development, and if that were true, why would our means of achieving pleasure be rubbing genitals rather than, say, fingers. But I think animals are pursuing sexual pleasure too, otherwise it wouldn’t be called being “in heat” — just watch dogs shaking their heads and tails, or watch dolphins engage in foreplay dozens of times longer than the act itself, and you’ll see what I mean. There’s also a creature called the fruit bat, where the female performs “oral sex” on the male to prolong mating time (Sanlian Life Week, 2009 issue 41, p.24) — of course this behavior might serve reproduction, but who knows if she just wants it to feel better?

Of course, my thinking here is mixed up with a lot of human assumptions — not being a biology student, I can only reason about it logically — but humans are probably like animals in some respects, at least when it comes to reproduction; it’s just that humans got lucky enough to discover the “wonder” of mating. Or maybe — other animals have discovered it too, and this is just our own self-indulgent fantasy — on the wondrous chain of life on this planet, what couldn’t happen?

Dolphins cannot breathe automatically — breathing must be controlled by will.

This means dolphins can never “pass out” — losing consciousness would mean suffocating, in other words, they can never truly sleep for the rest of their lives. Reading this, I found dolphins rather pitiable — even with muscle ratios and strength humans could never match, I still think a creature without sleep is something to be pitied. See, once again I’m looking at it from a human point of view.

The probability of quadruplets is one in 64 million.

That probability is incredibly low! It amazes me who gets chosen by God like that — and National Geographic actually found such a case! Setting aside the amazement, what concerns me more is the mother’s body — as the film says, quadruplets can’t stay in the womb for the full 10 months (7 months in this case), which creates a lot of risk (I assume to the mother), and each baby weighs less than 1 kilogram at birth, meaning many of their bodily systems aren’t fully functional yet — most notably, they may not be able to breathe on their own. Looking at it this way, being a quadruplet isn’t all that lucky after all.