- Joined
- Nov 12, 2015
As for the second point in that post, it wouldn't be too unreasonable to assume Pulaski hasn't had too much experience with childbirth on Starfleet vessels since for a long time no one brought families aboard and presumably women who did get pregnant just went on shore leave.
Yes, the Galaxy class was the first ship to officially be built with families in mind. While there was at least one allusion to it on TOS and the other series indicated it was a thing that happened every so often, the Galaxy was the first one where it was expected to be the norm. Pulaski, as I recall, also came out of retirement as a special favor to Picard to replace Crusher, so she was almost certainly not used to attending to births for most of her career as a doctor.
Also I think people forget how recent a phenomenon the father being present in the delivery room is. (An especially common problem for tumblrinas, who cannot conceive of a world before they were born.) Up through the sixties at the very least, hospitals outright forbid the fathers to be present, banishing them to a waiting room, it didn't matter if they wanted to be there or not. Considering it was the second season of TNG and thus firmly in the eighties, fathers being present for the birth was still a fairly new deal, and as usual for sci-fi current social norms are reflected in stuff set centuries in the future. Pulaski, as an older, "old-fashioned" doctor would have snorted at the idea of a father being present for the birth because that's what an older, old-fashioned doctor would have done in the eighties, and just like Pulaski they would have allowed it after huffing and puffing a bit.