Since Samantha Hanratty had learned so much about the childbirth process, she was able to recognize all the things that the Yellowjackets were doing wrong while trying to help Shauna (via Uproxx):
“Just little things like, if we were in a hospital, Shauna’s legs would have been propped up and we would have had her all the way at the foot of the bed and things like that. I definitely had to stop myself from being like, ‘That’s not accurate.’ To be like, ‘This is a group of teenage girls who don’t know what they’re doing.'”
Their uncertainty is what makes the birth scene so effective and genuine. The ensemble behaves exactly as teenagers would in this live-or-death situation: frozen in fear, their tear-filled eyes searching for someone who knows what to do, dreadful silence as they scramble to figure it out, and bewildered questions about whether or not they should boil water or time the contractions. Even the only adult in the room, Coach Ben, can’t face the pressure of this precarious moment.
Hanratty’s maternal health awareness would have helped the Yellowjackets’ struggle for survival. There’s been a lot of panic about whether or not the team would eat Shauna’s baby — luckily, they don’t (except in Shauna’s nightmare), but there are other pregnancy-related things they could have taken advantage of. “I think they should have eaten the placenta. It’s something that they should have cooked up. And honestly, I hate to get to this level of detail, but look, if Shauna is able to have any milk come out […] Maybe it was just a bit too far for the show,” Hanratty pointed out in her interview.
