by Peg Plumbo, CNM (see more from this expert)

Get answers to your 8 most-asked questions

You spend hours during your pregnancy imagining what your new baby will look like and how she will feel when you first hold her in your arms. You may wonder what birth is like from your baby's point of view, what a typical newborn looks like, how a baby reacts in the hours following birth and what to expect as you bond with your baby. Learn the answers to these questions and more.

1. What is the experience of labor and birth like for your baby?
Imagine yourself secure and warm with no sense of pain or discomfort, being gradually squeezed and compressed over many hours, only to emerge into a world of intense sensations of light, cold, touch, smells and loud noise. Your back is straightened out for the first time, your lungs burn and someone is rubbing you really hard with a rough blanket. Now imagine that you are being returned to a world of warmth, you are once again curled up against your mother's warm skin. No one is putting things in your mouth anymore and they are letting you just rest quietly. Maybe, wonder of wonders, warm, sweet colostrum is being offered. It takes a while to figure out what to do, but gradually you are rewarded. In an ideal world, baby only experiences a few minutes of the harsh realities of life before being nestled back into the arms of her mother and father.

2. What will your newborn baby look like?
Her head may be misshapen, elongated a bit, with prominent overriding ridges forming the plates of the skull. She may be pink or slightly dusky in color; the hands and the feet may be bluish. (African-American babies may appear rosy pink, only to take on their darker-shaded skin color within a week or two.) She may be covered in blood or wet with amniotic fluid. She may be stained slightly yellow or greenish if there was meconium in the fluid. This will fade within 24 to 48 hours. Some vernix, a waxy coating, may coat her body if she was a bit early. If term or postterm, the vernix may be gone or appearing just in the spaces under her arms or in the folds under her chin. If postterm, her skin may be peeling slightly.

3. Is bruising normal?
Occasionally, baby's head may be bruised or marked if forceps or a vacuum was required to assist the birth. These bruises will gradually resolve within the week. Rarely, babies will develop a large pocket of blood on one of their skull bones, just under the skin. This is called a cephalhematoma, and it very gradually resolves over the next month. Molding of the newborn's head will resolve more quickly and should be fairly normal within 48 to 72 hours.

4. What does your baby experience in the first moments of life?
Your baby's first hour of life is a critical one. The transition to extrauterine life requires major physiological adjustments. With her first breath, the baby must move from fetal to newborn circulation. The act of inflating the lungs for the first time requires a great expenditure of energy. Much more blood is now directed to the lungs, and these previously fluid-filled organs must now rid themselves of fluid and begin the transfer of oxygen to all the vital organs. Watch the nurse or midwife as she examines, measures and weighs your new baby. Ask your care providers any questions you may have about your new baby or about any tests or procedures. Remember that you are in charge; this is your baby!

5. What is the best time to begin bonding with your baby?

If possible, take the time to explore your baby's perfect body. Your baby will be beautiful, regardless of head shape or color. The first hour of life represents a period of quiet alertness in the baby. After a period of initial crying, the baby usually settles down to explore her world. If the lights are dim, she opens her eyes and seems to try to focus on the face of her mother and father. Familiar soft sounds like the voices of her mom, dad, brother or sister soothe her. This is the ideal time to initiate contact with the family and to begin to breastfeed. During this alert phase, the baby learns how to find her mother's nipple, how to latch on and how to suckle. The next breastfeeding experience will be easier for mother and baby if this first contact was successful.

6. What behaviors can you expect from your newborn?

Babies are amazing, and are very capable at birth. If they are unmedicated, they can search out and find the nipple -- and initiate breastfeeding. They can console themselves by suckling on a finger or hand. They can preserve body heat by curling up. They can grasp and hold their heads up for short periods of time. Their eyes are most adept at focusing at about 10 to 12 inches, which is the precise distance from mother's or father's arm to face.

7. Is it normal for your baby to want to sleep soon after birth?

Birth is an exhausting experience, and within about an hour it is best to let mother and baby sleep together for several hours. It is not unusual for baby to sleep another four to eight hours, perhaps waking only briefly to suckle and go back to sleep.

8. What books can I read to learn more?

  • Touchpoints, T. Berry Brazelton, M.D., Addison-Wesley, 1992
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