My first son will be born in 2 months and I must say, between stories like this and others that I learned in antenatal classes - I have never been more terrified in my life
Dad of 2 girls. 8 and 4. Not saying that life couldn’t have been equally great without them, but they are amazing. Rewired me in best way possible: to appreciate non-work life as much as anything else (perhaps more).
Becoming another individual’s whole world changes your own, for better or worse.
I was a “such is life” type of person when experiencing tragedy, and fairly ho-hum during joyous moments. With kids, something changed, or “rewired”. I tear up at Bluey episodes and lose sleep due to irrational fears of an early death and not witnessing moments in my kids’ lives.
Right there with you on unexpected tear-stream moments, fears, but also all those happy moments you can't anticipate.
In past year I've watched my older (8) start competing on a cheerleading team. Immense tear-streaming joy watching her light up in front of a crowd and build confidence. I was immediately overcome the first time and always feel a strong swell of emotion.
The real difficulty is deciding what caring means. Some people decide caring means getting onto your adult child's job interview call because you think they need help. For others, caring means giving them a safety net but letting them learn and possibly fail on their own.
I mean, make no mistake, it is terrifying, but you'll make it through eventually and it will be okay.
Also not sure if this was covered in class, but in case it wasn't: You need to rotate the baby. The baby needs rotation so that the head doesn't grow misshapen. Rotate the baby.
Bayesian statistics to the rescue! You hear about the things that (can) go wrong a lot more, than the babies that are born without an issue. Basically, the opposite of survivorship bias? Anywho, millions of babies are born each day. Only 3-4% are born with a major birth defect or severe health issue (in the US) [0]. Now, a pregnant woman will undergo a routine screening, such as non-invasive prenatal test (NIPT) or a detailed anatomy ultrasound. With a positive test result, the probability of the baby being born healthy goes up to 99%+. Even with a negative test, the probability of the baby being healthy only drops to 80-50%, and then further testing will dial those probabilities in even more.
All this to say, all will be good – don't let the rare anecdotes get to you.
None of us really know what to do!