The first part of our daf considers women who give birth to offspring with severe disabilities. Are they viable? How long will they survive outside of the mother's body? Many disabilities, including fused skulls, fused esophaguses, and flat faces to be reason enough to deem an offspring not viable, thus not a true childbirth, and thus not causing ritual impurity in the mother. Other conditions, like a child with two spines and two backs, also fall into this category. A crooked spine, however, will lead to a viable offspring but one who is blemished. Thus if he is a priest, he will not be able to serve in the Temple.
The rabbis also discuss the length of time that a fetus has been in the womb of a woman and how that might affect viability. They also discuss consumption of animals' offspring when they are born at different gestational lengths.
What if a woman gives birth to one with the form of a human but with wings? First of all, is this giving birth, or is it simply expelling discharge? The former leads to ritual impurity and an offering, while that latter does not. Some rabbis consider this to be a Lillith, and Lillith is called a female demon by several of these rabbis. The rabbis note that once it was ruled that such an offspring a viable child but it had wings, thus demystifying the demonic connections with Lillith. Rambam was scientific and rational in his examinations, and he named such an offspring as a child with what looks like wings on its back.
It is noted that Rabbi Chanina once deemed a woman ritually pure after having an offspring that looked like a snake. He was about to be chastised by Rabbi Gamliel when it was learned that Chanina's ruling was based on Gamliel's teaching about the shape of the eyes of an offspring. Gamliel did not go further with his admonition given that the ruling was based on his own teaching. This is used as a principle: rabbis should state the reasons behind their rulings and not just their rulings.
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