Why Babies Cry at Birth

Birth and death are in a way equivalent experiences. They represent transitions—one from a state we don’t remember, the other to a state we don’t yet know. This applies to most of us. On entry into what we here call life, our memories of any pre-existence are effectively suspended—except for the handful who, for a while, remember previous lives. The latter also remember a death, and it came before this new life had its start. Those few who’ve undergone near-death experiences also have memories that at least suggest what such memories might be like.

Their reports suggest that death is rather ordinary, indeed abrupt. Ahead of it come memories of accidents or hospitalizations and then a state of detached awareness without pain. In many of these cases the person hears doctors, nurses in agitated states pronouncing that the patient’s dead. The subject then protests: “No, I’m not. I’m still alive! Here I am!” But the patient isn’t heard.

Perhaps it is a blessing that our consciousness is blanked out at birth and that our new brains cannot yet link to accumulated memories of our longer past, if any. Then babies might cry even harder. “No, no, no! Not that old trip again! Oh, my God. High school. Still ahead. Again!” To be sure the healthy-minded might look forward to all that, the cheerleading, the hazing, the Letter, the quest for popularity. For non-participants birth signals joy, death sorrow. If we but knew it, participants’ reactions may be the exact reverse.

If we but knew it. But all that we actually know is what we experience here—plus what amount to marginal and indistinct whispers suggesting that we might be wrong. Hence we view this life as immeasurably precious—if it’s our own and not the life of a chicken we chew or the lives we send drones to terminate. Do I remember being upset at waking in this world? I don’t. But I do recall some doubts distinctly. As for what lies ahead, for that I have my least-favorite apostle’s judgment. Oh death, where is thy sting? Oh grave, where is thy victory? 1 Corinthians 15:55.