Joke or not, it is absolutely not funny to wish death on a not yet born baby! That nurse needs to be fired from her position if her smoke cravings are more important than helping OPs wife through her seemingly painful labour.

But it appears that her cravings weren't more important than doing her job because if they were she probably would have just walked out to get a smoke. I'm not condoning what the nurse said but I know I've made inappropriate comments to coworkers that would be taken badly if overheard by someone else. It's a stress reliever to complain to people who understand what you're going through. Of course she should have known better than to say that where anyone else might overhear it.

Saying that you wish the baby would just die already is not only in poor taste, but something only a psychopath would say. If the craving for nicotine is that bad then she needs to admit she has an issue and deal with it. Not "relieve her stress" by wishing ill of someone, joking or not. How is it is any way, shape, or form, the mother, or the baby's fault that the labor was difficult? She should be more understanding of this as she has chosen to be a nurse in L&D. She should know what comes with the job, and to be that jaded she has had to have been there a while, so she had no excuse. If I have a nurse like this when I go into labor, you can be damn sure the hospital will hear about it as it is unprofessional and could be construed as a threat.

even if that was a joke , A it was terrible jokes about babies dying are not funny .and B its an non appropriate joke for the work place . if i was the ladygiving birth , i wouldnt want that nurse anywhere near me. and if that nurse vauled her job she wouldnt be saying stupid shit that could get her fired.

Where there's smoke, there's FIRED!