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A live birth is delivery of offspring showing signs of life after separation from the mother. In human vital statistics, breathing or a beating heart can provide such evidence; being born alive and surviving the subsequent neonatal period are distinct outcomes.^[ref]

In comparative reproduction, delivery of living young is associated with viviparity, whereas oviposition releases eggs whose embryonic development continues outside the maternal body. The evolutionary question concerns where and how the developing offspring is supported, rather than whether the mother produces ova.