I used to be terrified of neonates. Not because I disliked them—far from it—but because I was afraid I’d accidentally hurt them. Was I holding them too tightly, cutting off their blood supply? Or too loosely, so they might slip and tumble to the ground? These were the thoughts swirling in my head as I waited for a friend under a tree outside the hospital where I worked in Delhi. That’s when I noticed something tiny, seemingly alive, at the base of the tree. Encounters like these are often the first step toward being drafted into the long-term care of another living being. It’s not necessarily a bad thing—unless the…