Hold your breath for two minutes
No, not to get high. It feels like quite some time though.

I've since found out from midwives that, comparatively speaking, my daughter's entry into the world two months ago was not particularly traumatic or unusual. But that's a pro speaking. For me, a fresh-faced amateur, it was like being teased by a psychotic god.

M'lady went in for an emergency c-section at 5am, and I was sat by her head the whole time, steadfastly refusing to glance at the business end. We'd been told that babies often don't cry when they pop out, and almost all of them get whisked to the recus table. Our baby was straight on that bugger, silent and white as a sheet, with air being blown into her lungs and the midwife administering one-fingered chest compressions. Elation to anticipation to anxiety to dread to awful, awful defeat in the space of just 120 seconds.
My girlfriend was moaning "oh no, oh no" very quietly, and shaking like a leaf. All I could do was try and block her view of what I now reluctantly presumed was our stillborn daughter. I've seen Baywatch, I know the score – any more than three puffs of breath needed and its over. Hell of a tragic disappointment after nine months, two weeks and fifteen hours of idiotic grinning and expectation. Weirdly, all I could think of was what I was going to tell my mum, other than what her name would have been. Miranda.

Then we heard a little cry.

My chest flutters a little bit just thinking about that noise. I'm sure there'll be a bunch of these kind of stories this week, and I'll probably well up reading every single one.

(ps our midwife later told us she's seen little'uns being revived for up to 45 minutes. I don't think my heart could take that.)
(pps I've also seen The Abyss, with its massively drawn-out CPR scene. Must remember that for next time)
( Wet-chinned bag shanker Cannot parse Wogan, Fri 6 Aug 2010, 11:09, 3 replies)

Never forget
James cameron films when he made good ones.
(phe, Fri 6 Aug 2010, 12:07, closed)