Shrimp Boat Captain Delivers Baby Onboard

The Houston Chronicle ran a nice story about a shrimp boat captain who had to deliver a baby onboard while 30 miles offshore. Though she wasn't due until September, Cindy Preisel's water broke Wednesday. What was a shimp boat captain to do? Some highlights from the article:

[The mother] showed off the piece of green shrimp net twine boat captain Edward Kiesel used to tie off [the baby's] umbilical cord .

The baby's first bottle was an emptied and boiled soy sauce bottle with a nipple made from the finger of a rubber shrimper's glove. He was swaddled in paper and cloth towels.

The baby is now known around the Freeport waterfront as "the big shrimp".

i-b76af2fdefc6bf1da1a420543f016b4f-shrimpy 2.jpg
Photo of a shrimp courtesy of Kona black water diver Matthew D'Avella.

More like this

There are no more resourceful people than those that work on ships for a living. Being a marine biologist, I go to sea more a month at a time and swear on Neptune's grave that I brought everything I need plus spares. But it always turn out I miss something, or lack a special tool needed to modify a piece of equipment. My buttocks (and thesis research!) have been saved numerous times by bosons, engineers and other ships crew. Thank Neptune for practical experience!

First bottle??? Is that a joke? Why would a newborn with its mother (food source) right there need a bottle? And what would they feed it from this "bottle"? Not much for a baby on a shrimping boat.

Look at how the natural act of birth is treated by our medical professionnals for a majorly shifting baseline. That and the quality of "news" reporting ;)