Logical Fallacy

Here's a phrase that I'm sick of:

Women have had babies for thousands of years/hundreds of years ago/when I was pregnant I did/didn't/women did plenty of/never did X or Y, and they survived/their babies survived/the human race survived.

Yes, you're correct, the ancient Egyptians had babies, too. And they also probably drank beer and smoked whatever ancient Egyptians smoked and didn't read What to Expect when you're Expecting and didn't use pain killers or iron supplements or avoid blue cheese.

They were also most likely years younger on average when giving birth than we are, and rather than being some sort of magical super-race devoid of miscarriages and birth defects as the argument would suggest, I'm guessing their infant, child and mother mortality rates as well as their rates of physical and mental birth defects were a lot higher and their average life expectancy a lot lower. So, since my personal goal in life is actually not to be a part of making sure that the human race continues to survive and evolve but rather to make sure my OWN kid and I both survive and remain healthy, I am in no hurry to emulate the ancient Egyptians' or any other wistfully remembered past culture's gestational methods just so that I can have more fun -- scratch that, just so that YOU can have more fun -- at a party.

So the fact that certain or all people X number of years ago did not act in the same way while pregnant as we do today is wholly uninteresting because of the fact that they didn't get the same outcome as we get today. Next time someone uses this argument on me to try to get me to drink a glass of wine, I'll pick at them for their silly modern habit of showering and brushing their teeth and cooking their meat before they eat it. After all, cavemen didn't do those things, and things obviously worked out fine for them.