Childbirth: The Crossword

[Charlie Reams]

I made this for my sister, who is about to qualify as a midwife, for her birthday. Since I know a handful of you are game for a tricky puzzle, I thought I'd share it with you. I'd be interested to hear from anyone who tries it whether you finished it or where you got stuck.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ifnaufrab2gbtb5/21.pdf

[Jon Corby]

Easy, got it straight away, it's "HAPPY 21st IZZY".

[Innis Carson]

I've given it a go but I've twice hit a dead end with only a few words left to enter - this is hardly an area of expertise of mine so most likely I've got at least one of the words wrong. Will give it all a look over tomorrow.

[JimBentley]

This was really cool, I've had great fun doing it. Given that the subject isn't strictly general knowledge, I think most of the clues are actually fair game for everyone and there could probably have been a few more specialist ones (like 35 - 35 is a lovely word) thrown in. I knew most of them off the top of my head, but had to dredge 20 and 32 from the depths somewhere and didn't have 42 or 50 before I started, but figured I had enough (although I don't think I would have started had I not had one of 35 or 50).

With one of the long ones, it's quite straightforward and it all works out very satisfyingly. I kicked myself when I realised what 50 was (I was trying to think of a more clinical term) but I genuinely didn't know what 42 was until I'd filled everything else in and it could only be one possible word. And then I still had to Google it to figure out the context. But that's a gap in my knowledge, it's a good clue.

So cheers for that, Charlie! It was a nice thing for a Sunday afternoon.

[Conor]

That was enjoyable; got there in the end - spent ten minutes thinking there was one clue too few, but there wasn't. Had to use some help for #32 (no way would I have otherwise got it, though it didn't affect inserting the words so much). I also didn't know 42 until the surrounding words all fit (though I've heard the term before).

[JimBentley]

Had to use some help for #32

Conor's comment got me to thinking, I forgot to mention that there were a number of the clues that I only got because of the alphabetical order of the answers - 32 was one of those (as were 19 and 40).