Paul McCartney believes he remembers his own birth – because of a forceps delivery

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He believes he remembers the moment he first saw the light of day – and cites a forceps delivery as the reason. The subject is Paul McCartney, whose statement has caused a stir in a podcast.

When asked what his earliest memory was, the Beatles legend gave a surprising answer. Instead of a scene from childhood, he named his own birth – and explained why precisely this moment has remained tangible for him to this day.

The statement raises questions: Is a conscious memory of one's own birth even possible? And what does a pair of forceps have to do with McCartney believing he can remember?

What McCartney said in the podcast

Asked about his earliest memory, the musician replied that he believes he remembers his birth. As his explanation, he cited the fact that he was delivered by forceps.

Because I was a forceps delivery.

Which podcast it was and the exact wording in which McCartney described the scene does not emerge from the available report – what is clear is that he classifies the experience himself as a memory, not as a fantasy.

What a forceps delivery actually is

In a forceps delivery – medically known as a forceps extraction – the midwife or doctor supports the baby's head with a forceps-like instrument when the natural birth stalls. This can put pressure on the child's head and face. The use of such instruments has become significantly rarer today than it was in the 1940s, when McCartney was born – in his generation, the procedure was still comparatively common.

Can you really remember your own birth?

The notion that one can remember the moment of one's own birth is highly controversial among neuroscientists and psychologists. A newborn's brain is not yet capable of storing autobiographical memories in the proper sense at that point. What many people take for a birth memory is often family myths retold after the fact, or sensory impressions from the first months of life that coalesce into a coherent story in adulthood.

McCartney's statement thus remains above all a very personal one: What counts for him as a memory – and why does he consider the moment of the forceps delivery worth mentioning? The answer to that is known only to him.