Stan B
Well-Known Member
Blind post.
As the father of seven children and having been there for the birth of six (one was born at the age of 31 weeks as well as being an emergency c-section and I couldn't get to the hospital that was 90 minutes away as I was watching our other children at the time) I can honestly say that the the newborn takes its first breath well before the cord is cut and all but one did so as they were halfway birthed. As all my children cried before the cord was cut and you need lungs full of air to cry.
Just wanted to point that out.
That was a point of contention in Rabbinical law: whether life began when the head first emerged from the womb, or when the entire fetal body had been separated from the mother.
Until the umbilical cord had been severed, the fetus was considered part of the mother’s body. Although the fetus may have taken its first breath before the cord was cut, the first breath was normally associated with cutting the cord.