How a Baby is Born and ...

After the baby is born, the uterus goes on contrac- ting, but less vigorously, and a few minutes the pla- centa and the two cover- ings that were protecting the baby emerge. These are called the afterbirth and are disposed of.

At birth the baby is for the first time on his own, and his first job is to start breathing in air-something he did not need to do and could not do floating in fluid inside the uterus. Sometimes it is helpful for the doctor to suction out the baby's nose and throat with a rubber bulb syringe or a suction machine to make it easier for him to start breathing. After his first breaths he is likely to utter a small, high cry, which is a delightful signal to the mother, that she has produced a child. What an accomplishment! A new life begins. Many boys and girls, having seen babies a few weeks or months old and knowing how smooth and pretty they look, are a bit disappointed and even shocked when they see a newborn baby. (So are mothers and fathers)

Usually a newborn is not at all beautiful, not even pretty. He is wrinkly, splotchy, and often quite red. The baby's face may be swollen and look troubled, stupid, or even worn out, and in general he doesn't seem to be much of an addition to the family. But we have to remember that the process of getting himself born may have been fairly hard on him. However, his colour soon becomes normal, and his skin gets to look more skinlike. In less than a month he will be a lovely, desirable-looking baby, and even a day or two after birth can work wonders.

A newborn can see enough to tell light from dark, but things are blurred to him at first until his eyes get used to focusing. He can taste, and he can feel pain and pressure. He does not like loud noises or the sensation of falling. He quickly learns that the way to get what he needs is to cry. Many babies do a lot of crying during the first month, whether they need something or not.

An activity the newborn does very well is sucking. He has very strong sucking muscles and a little pad of fat in each cheek to help him. He will suck on anything that is put near his mouth. His mother has just the right equipment for him to suck on. At the end of each of her breasts is a nipple, and inside the breasts are glands that manufacture milk and a network of small tubes that bring the milk to the nipple when the baby sucks.

For the first day or two after the birth, the fluid from the mother's breasts, called colostrum, is slight in amount, yellowish, and watery. This is just what the baby needs: it contains some food and also special substances that protect him from possible infections to which he is exposed now that he is in the world. The baby sucks actively even though he doesn't get much, and such sucking stimulates the breast glands to make milk that is more nutritious.

Mother's milk is an ideal baby food: it is clean, safe and digestable, with just the right proportions of protein, fats, carbohydrates, minerals, and vitamins. Being held close and nursing at his mother's breast continues for a baby the feeling or warmth and closeness to his mother that he needs, and it is also pleasant and healthy for the mother too.

There are a good many mothers who do not wish, or do not feel able, to nurse their babies. These babies are fed from a bottle that has a rubber nipple and contains a special formula similar to breast milk, and they grow to be as sturdy and healthy as a breast-fed baby, especially if the mother or father holds the baby in her or his arms lovingly while the child sucks from the bottle.