My classmates of course screamed bloody murder when I made my little observation, but that does not make it any less true. Babies become cute only about ten minutes after they're born, until which time they compete with earthworms and slugs in terms of cuteness.
After an entire week of night internship in the labour ward, I find the place about as appealing as a concentration camp. It's perpetually filled with screaming women, all flailing about on four-foot high metal beds (and occasionally falling off, IV line and all) with the entire room smelling of an aroma that comes from a cocktail of shed placenta, faeces, blood, and sometimes vomit (some textbooks call it "vomitus" with the clearly mistaken belief that that makes it somewhat less revolting)
But then all of this is normal. Abnormal happens every now and then too, like the one woman who got up to go to the bathroom and ended up coming out with a baby in her hands. I try not to think about what might have happened in there.
To put up with all of this on a daily basis, the people who work in the labour ward obviously have to make some modifications to their thinking processes. This acclimatisation involves disconnecting the part of the brain which deals with empathy and upping the sarcasm tenfold, resulting in responses like "Oh, you want a caesarean? The doctor's at the tea shop, let me just go get her"!
In the midst of all this chaos and screaming, out comes a baby, bathed in blood and choking for air.
Forgive me, but "cute" isnt what comes to mind.
After an entire week of night internship in the labour ward, I find the place about as appealing as a concentration camp. It's perpetually filled with screaming women, all flailing about on four-foot high metal beds (and occasionally falling off, IV line and all) with the entire room smelling of an aroma that comes from a cocktail of shed placenta, faeces, blood, and sometimes vomit (some textbooks call it "vomitus" with the clearly mistaken belief that that makes it somewhat less revolting)
But then all of this is normal. Abnormal happens every now and then too, like the one woman who got up to go to the bathroom and ended up coming out with a baby in her hands. I try not to think about what might have happened in there.
To put up with all of this on a daily basis, the people who work in the labour ward obviously have to make some modifications to their thinking processes. This acclimatisation involves disconnecting the part of the brain which deals with empathy and upping the sarcasm tenfold, resulting in responses like "Oh, you want a caesarean? The doctor's at the tea shop, let me just go get her"!
In the midst of all this chaos and screaming, out comes a baby, bathed in blood and choking for air.
Forgive me, but "cute" isnt what comes to mind.
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