What does a newborn baby look like and what can it do?

The birth of a child is the most difficult period in a person's life. The impressions of the "journey" through the narrow birth canal remain forever in the person's subconscious, because during childbirth he is subjected to extreme trials.

In the womb, the baby developed at a constant temperature, it was provided with an uninterrupted supply of nutrition and oxygen. The amniotic fluid and tissues of the mother's body protected it from mechanical injuries. The baby's lungs were in a collapsed state, the gastrointestinal tract practically did not function. Despite the fact that the child sees something while in the womb, it is still very dark there... And suddenly!!! As a result of childbirth, he gets from an aquatic environment to an airy one, from warmth to cold, from darkness to a room flooded with blinding light, from silence to a room where loud voices are heard, there is a ringing of instruments, noise, perceived by the child as a cacophony of sounds! With his most delicate skin, he feels new, sometimes quite unpleasant touches. If we compare his sensations with the sensations of an adult, they can be described as follows: you were undressed - for about an hour they squeezed very hard from all sides; then doused with cold water and kicked out into the cold; a spotlight was pointed at my face and a blacksmith with a hammer was placed next to my ear, pounding the anvil with all his might! Well, have you gotten into character?

Stunned, blinded, chilled, the baby screams desperately. After the first cry, the baby begins to breathe.

With the first breath, a restructuring begins in the child's body - air begins to pass through the lungs. As a result, the pulmonary circulation, which did not function in utero, is activated. To do this, the direction of blood flow in the heart changes (in utero, blood from the right ventricle and atrium was pumped directly to the left sections of the heart, due to the presence of "windows" in the septum of the heart, since there was no need for blood to pass through the lungs, which do not breathe).

A newborn has significant differences in body proportions compared to an adult. Its head is much larger in relation to the body. In a full-term baby, it accounts for a quarter of the body, in a premature baby - up to a third, while in an adult - only an eighth. Such dimensions of the newborn's head are explained by the preferential development of the brain.

In full-term newborns, the head circumference is on average about 34 cm. The shape of the head may vary. This depends on how the birth process took place. If the baby was delivered by caesarean section, it will be round. If the baby was born through the natural birth canal, then due to passing through them, the head changed shape due to the mobile bones of the skull. Therefore, it can have an elongated, flattened, asymmetrical shape. Between the frontal and two parietal bones there is a fontanelle - a soft place where there is no bone. Its size is individual and ranges from one to three centimeters. Often, young mothers are afraid of damaging the baby's brain through the fontanelle with a careless touch. Do not be afraid: the baby's brain in the fontanelle area is reliably protected by strong membranes.

Cephalohematomas often occur during childbirth. This is a collection of blood under the periosteum (most often on the parietal bones). Cephalohematomas usually do not affect the general condition of the child and resolve within 2-3 weeks.

The nose of a newborn is very small, the nasal passages are narrow, and the mucous membrane covering them is delicate. It contains a large number of blood vessels. It is necessary to ensure that the nasal passages of the child are free. Otherwise, he will not be able to suck, as he will choke.

It is quite difficult to examine the eyes of a newborn on the first day of his life, as he closes them tightly. A healthy full-term newborn has clear eyes, the cornea

Transparent, pupils are round, the iris is gray-blue, and only by one or two years the color of the eyes can change. The lacrimal glands are still underdeveloped, so in the first month of life the child cries without tears.

Most newborns have hair growing on their heads. This hair usually changes within two to three weeks. Almost all newborns have black hair. The degree of "hairiness" varies among children. Sometimes children are born simply "shaggy", and there are almost "bald" newborns.

The skin of a newborn is soft, elastic, velvety to the touch, very elastic. The stratum corneum is very thin, so it is easily injured. The color of the skin depends on the time that has passed since birth. In the first minutes it is pale blue, but as soon as the baby begins to breathe, the skin becomes pink. Very often there is a white cheesy grease on the skin of a newborn. This is a natural protection of the skin. It is usually removed, but it can be absorbed on its own. Sometimes small hemorrhages can be found on the skin in the presenting part. They disappear on their own.

A newborn may have pink spots on the bridge of the nose, eyelids, neck, etc. This is not a hemangioma, but dilated blood vessels. The spots will disappear on their own in one to two months.

Newborns sometimes have bluish-gray "Mongolian" spots on their lower back, buttocks, and thighs. These spots occur in 90% of cases in children of the Mongoloid race. (Apparently, this is a genetic tribute to the Tatar-Mongol yoke.) The spots usually disappear by the age of 4-7.

Occasionally, small pinpoint blisters filled with clear liquid, resembling dew drops, may appear on the skin of a newborn. As the sweat glands develop, these drops disappear.

After the vernix caseosa is removed, under the influence of the lower ambient temperature, the newborn's blood vessels dilate and its skin becomes bright red. This is physiological erythema, which will gradually disappear by the end of the first week of life.

Approximately one third of newborns develop toxic erythema on the second to fifth day of life. It looks like thickened red spots or rings, often with a grayish-yellow blister in the center. The spots are most often found on the extensor surfaces of the limbs, buttocks, chest, and less often on the stomach or face. They do not appear on the palms, feet, or mucous membranes. The children's condition is not affected, and their temperature remains normal. This is a semblance of an allergic reaction (allergic reaction) associated with substances that have entered the child from the mother's body.

At the end of the second - beginning of the third day after birth, the skin of 60-70% of children begins to turn yellow. Jaundice begins on the face, then moves to the back between the shoulder blades, then to the entire body and limbs. The whites of the eyes and the mucous membrane of the oral cavity may be stained. The greatest yellowness is observed on the third or fourth day, after which it begins to decrease and completely disappears by the end of the first week of life. This is physiological jaundice. It must be distinguished from hemolytic disease of the newborn, which occurs with a Rh conflict (the mother is Rh negative, the child is Rh positive) or if the mother has 0 (I) blood group, and the child has a different one. Jaundice in hemolytic disease begins at the end of the first day or even earlier. Some children are already born yellow. Hemolytic disease is a serious disease that requires intensive treatment.

A newborn's breathing is irregular: sometimes it quickens, sometimes it slows down. Sometimes it becomes barely audible. Sometimes the child may snore or even snore in his sleep. If breathing becomes suddenly difficult, and the child turns blue, you should immediately consult a doctor!

Sometimes children startle in their sleep from loud, sharp sounds or an unexpected change in body position. This is not a pathology. Some children (and adults too) are simply more fearful than others. Another matter is a small tremor of the chin and hands. This may indicate, on the one hand, that the child's nervous system is not yet quite perfect, on the other hand, a possible magnesium deficiency in the body. In case of pronounced, frequently recurring tremors, a consultation with a neurologist is required.

On the third or fourth day, newborns may experience engorgement of the mammary glands, and girls may experience vaginal discharge. This is the so-called sexual crisis, caused by the effect of maternal hormones in the child's body.

The newborn's stool in the first two days is dark (almost black) with a greenish tint, viscous and sticky - this is meconium. After two days, the feces become transitional, and after four days they become normal for a child who is breastfed: yellow, creamy, with a sour smell.

Sometimes newborns hiccup. This is a reflex movement of the diaphragm that occurs after eating (most often). It does not last long - a few minutes, is not dangerous and usually does not bother the child. It is possible that air has accumulated in the stomach: hold the baby upright after eating so that he burps.

In addition to crying of varying intensity and direction, a newborn has innate reflexes. Some of them are vitally important - for example, the breathing reflex. Other reflexes will disappear as the child grows. Their presence or absence indicates the degree of maturity of the nervous system and the level of development of the child. When a child lies on his stomach, he turns his head to the side so that he can breathe. This reflex is called protective. Therefore, you should not worry about the child suffocating while lying on his stomach. Another thing is that you need to make sure that he does not lie on a soft surface - a pillow, a feather bed, so that he does not bury his nose in them.

Among the reflexes that relate to the neonatal period, we can highlight the search reflex - when you touch the baby's cheek, he turns his head towards the stimulus. In this way, the baby is looking for a source of nutrition - the mother's breast. The sucking reflex appears as soon as the mother's nipple gets into the baby's mouth - he himself begins to suck (to consolidate this reflex, you need to put the baby to the breast as early as possible). Inextricably linked with it is the swallowing reflex, thanks to which the baby cannot choke on mother's milk and swallows it. The crawling reflex is that the baby, resting his legs on a placed support, pushes off from it (for example, from your palm) and crawls. Therefore, when leaving the child alone, you need to remember the existence of this reflex and lay him down so that he cannot crawl far, and even more so - fall to the floor from the height of the changing table. The other reflexes are not as important for you as for the pediatrician who assesses the degree of development of your child's nervous system.

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