I grab the edge of the pillowcase in my teeth.
I think babies born vaginally are “uglier” than babies born via C-section, because they haven’t traveled through the birth canal. I had a picture of my son just after birth and his face is definitely a bit…asymetrical.
Now he’s almost 15, taller than I am, and rather handsome, if I do say so myself.
Fresh-from-delivery newborns have a wisened, reddish, covered-with-fluid look that is totally reasonable when one takes into account that they have spent the last nine months suspended in amniotic fluid.
They lose that appearance very rapidly. I held my grandson Jordan when he was eight hours old – one of the high points of my life! – and he had normal healthy pink skin, any skull deformation from birth had moved back into place, and he was absolutely beautiful. (Lankiest baby I’ve ever seen, though – he was then and remains at age 8 a healthily slender child, with no noticeable baby fat.)
I once saw a story on the news about a man who makes newborn-baby models. They are made of the same stuff that most special effects prostheses are, I think, except that they are weighted so that they flop around like a real newborn. He also makes some that are motorized to wave their arms and legs, and even grimace/cry. I think he usually rents them out to movies and TV shows, rather than sell them–they are awfully expensive.
Here’s a related question: why aren’t babies born all black & blue? During development they’re cushioned in a nice sack full of water, but then that breaks and the poor things get mashed about and squeezed (often for hours and hours and hours) and finally forced through an opening surrounded by ungiving bones…shouldn’t they show more trauma? Like bruises, swollen areas, etc?
Babies must be a lot tougher than we give them credit for.
The human body is an amazing thing. During pregnancy, ligaments soften and stretch, thereby allowing the bones to move as needed. This is why babies don’t get totally smashed coming out.