Please clear something up for me, Jac. In the movies at least, the poor hubbie is dispatched to the kitchen to "boil Water" Why? I have done some training (no actual events) in emergency childbirth and I don't recall any specific need to boil... I can understand the need for sterile cloth and wraps, however. Is that why? If that is the case, I believe longer boiling times are justified, five minutes and up, because you are facing different organisms, some of which are quite resistant to heat.

I can't find my latest edition of Medicine for Mountaineering, but I believe the author advocates just bringing the water to a minimum boil, at any altitude for drinking water. He also points out that milk is pasteurized at 165 degrees, well short of boiling (except on the summit of Everest)

So exactly why are we dispatched to the kitchen. To get us out of the way????