It’s incredible what can change in a person the moment they become a parent. For Carla, she found that nothing about her baby seemed to disgust her.

Spit up, wet nappies, drool, even blow-outs were addressed quickly. Things that would have made her gag were now everyday jobs. After all, her baby needed her.

She fed him on demand. The suckling sounds which would horrify her from an adult mouth were endearing. As he grew and tried new foods, Carla experimented with all kinds of purees. Bananas, which never failed to make her queasy, were his favourite for a while. She could get through mashing them into a horrid sludge by imagining his gummy smile.

As he grew even larger, she found he enjoyed other things she would have once thought distasteful. But when it was all he would eat, she made sure he had it.

A staunch vegetarian, she learned to cook meat.

A lifelong adherent to food safety guidelines, she cooked it rarer and rarer.

A pacifist, she began to bring him fresh, dripping meat.

When he was finally able to verbalise his needs, Carla carried out the job she’d been avoiding, certain she couldn’t stomach it. As she stood over the stranger, dripping knife in hand, she was surprised how easily she could now see the body as just another task in an endless rota.

After all, her baby needed to be fed.