When the baby pops out

1) The mother may well be blocked off from a view of her 'baby-popper' (heh heh) by a sheet or other object -- things can get awfully bloody down there during childbirth and doctors often block off the mother's view, especially if she is prone to flying into hysterical screaming/crying fits and panic attacks, as we know Cynthia is.

2) Premature babies often look 'blue' or much darker due to lack of oxygen during the childbirth process. Cynthia thought Hortense/ 'Elizabeth' was premature and a 'blue baby' -- that was the whole discussion in the coffee shop when Cynthia said she thought the baby was premature.


(However she also knew, although maybe she was subconsciously blocking it out, that she had had sex with a black man.)





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4) You ever seen Superman $#$# his pants? Case closed.

She explains in the cafe that they (the medical staff) wanted her to look at the baby, but she "couldn't". She was 16 years old, and immature even for that, in a terrible state, sent away to have the child secretly, unable to deal with the reality of what was happening at all. It is not remotely surprising that she wouldn't have seen - eyes tight closed, sobbing uncontrollably...the wonderful thing about Blethyn's performance in that scene is that you can (or I can) picture exactly how she was during the birth.

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