Our first son, who was born at 29 weeks 6 days cried when he was born. My new son (35 weeks, 2 days) did not cry when he was born. I might be making a bigger deal out of this than it actually is, and certainly others have had to experience much worse, but boy it was scary! Here's what happened...
This c-section was much slower, calmer, and more enjoyable than the first (the first was an emergency), that is, until he was born. I followed the baby over to the place where he was going to be examined (as I had previously planned) and it wasn't until we got there when I noticed things weren't quite right - my baby wasn't breathing. After some quick suctioning, he still wasn't breathing so they starting bagging him. It was this same oxygen bag that we saw every day for 6 weeks with our first, hanging on the wall in the NICU, but I'd never seen it in action - You don't want to see it in action.
It only took about 30 seconds before they starting "bagging" my new baby boy ...and they didn't stop. after 2 minutes they urgently, but somewhat calmly (probably because I was standing right there) told somebody to get a Neonatologist there right away (now that I think about it, shouldn't one have already been there for a premature birth??).
2 minutes later (about 4 minutes after birth) the Neonatologist showed up just as my son started to breath. That was the longest 4 minutes of my life. In my head, my baby was dying, I was suffering and praying for my baby and his little lungs. My wife, who was laying on the operating table was watching with tears in her eyes from across the small Operating Room. This was very hard for her to watch (though I must say she is more brave than me, she was a NICU nurse a few years back and is very calm in the face of these types of things).
Over the past few weeks, I've been reading many stories of premature births, even some for babies who don't make it. These stories are very touching and I have shed many tears reading of less fortunate preemies. This experience of watching my baby not breath for 4 minutes is nothing compared to the things some parents go through during premature deliveries and my heart goes out to those families. Especially to those who's baby was just born to soon, too small, or with too many or too severe complications to survive.
