#imagine being married to an obstetric nurse and not realizing babies just look weird in the beginning

[get-back-homeward]

Editing to add this passage because it’s even worse in context of a complicated birth:

“The ensuing months were quieter, however, and in the middle of the pause, in September, Mary McCartney became pregnant. As maternity ward sister at Walton Hospital she was accorded the luxury of a private room there when giving birth to a boy on Thursday, June 18, 1942. It was just as well, because there was a complication. Interpreting signs that the delivery would be difficult, the midwife (who’d trained Mary) summoned the urgent assistance of a doctor. In the terminology of the time, the baby was born in a state of White Asphyxia, a condition that typically required direct cardiac massage and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. It was an emergency, but a brief one: the infant suddenly began screaming and all was well.”

—Mark Lewisohn, Tune In (Ch. 2)

From ICD-10 (2019 version)

[x] History of “birth asphyxia” in malpractice suits

remember when jim mccartney cried when paul was born because he looked so ugly