When my son was born, and after a day of lying-in I was told that I could leave the hospital and take him home, I burst into tears. It wasn’t the emotion of the moment: it was shock and horror.

Orlean describes the abrupt transition from medically supervised childbirth to the unstructured responsibility of parenthood. Her tears are not sentimental joy but a visceral recognition that the stakes have suddenly become real: a fragile new life is now hers to protect without institutional scaffolding. The “shock and horror” underscores how culturally normalized it is to treat newborn care as something parents should intuitively know, even though it can feel terrifyingly unfamiliar. The quote captures a common, often unspoken postpartum emotion—fear and disbelief at the enormity of the task—while also hinting at the vulnerability and humility that can accompany becoming a parent.