Secret Life Of Babies

A miracle has happened. A baby was born. Your first, although very short, acquaintance has happened. Lets try to learn what happens with babies after they are present solemnly to mothers.

The first thing a new-born baby needs is warmth. In comparison with maternal comfortable warmth, outward things of a labour ward are rather cold. So, doctors task is to prevent warmth loss: babies are wiped dry with a swaddling band at once and put on a table with a special lamp, where a babys temperature is constantly controlled. But beforehand, when a baby is at his mothers legs yet, right after his birth, and sometimes right at the moment when his head appears, they draw off slime and amniotic fluid from a babys nose and mouth, to make his first breath easier. Right after birth, an accoucheur clamps and cuts an umbilical cord. Your baby begins his own life. Then doctors spot argentic nitrate or sulfacetamide extract into babys eyes, to prevent eye infections, particularly blennorrhea , which appears, if a mother is sick with gonorrhoea. Absolutely all babies pass through this preventive procedure, as a woman is not always aware about her illness. They cleanse girls genitals also. Moreover, they also determine a babys blood group and Rhesus factor, according to umbilical cord blood.

A babys first medical inspection takes place right after birth. A doctor estimates a babys general state, his breath, palpitation, skin color, determines apparent defects, estimating also a state of hip joints and clavicles, which pathology is often met. A doctor pays special attention to a babys cry. Doctor can determine a lot about general state of a baby, listening to a babys inflexion while crying. Later on, a doctor and a nurse examine a baby every morning, during his stay in a maternity hospital. A baby is weighed every day at the same time, and before discharge he passes through control weighing before and after nursing, in order to know whether he eats enough. Moreover, a nurse cleanses his umbilical wound with a hydric dioxide and manganese crystals regularly.

If you think its too early for your baby to get marks, youre mistaken. Hell get his first mark right after birth, according to so called scale of Apgar, which allows determining a babys initial state of health quickly. This scale was worked out in 1952 by doctor V.Apgar for junior medical staff, which could determine a baby that needed more care, with the help of this scale. A baby receives marks according to this scale in the end of the first minute after birth and then in the end of the fifth minute. Doctors estimate a babys state of muscle tone in complex, reaction to irritation, skin color, respiration rate and heartbeat. Till recently such estimation served as a guide to further actions for medical staff. Now a role of this scale has changed a little, especially for babies, which need special reanimation measures. A doctor estimates a babys state right after birth (and often even before birth) and holds reanimation, if its necessary, - according to modern standards, its already late to do it in the end of the first minute of life. So, in this case, they estimate rather efficiency of reanimation measures according to the scale, not a real state of a baby. And such estimation takes place during following 25 minutes of babys life. Later, it is written in a babys medical card.

After first medical examination, an accoucheur cleanses an umbilical cord, clear a babys skin with oil and wraps him in swaddling clothes. Now a new human being can have some rest from first impressions, falling on him, till his first procedure of nursing.

On the third day babies pass through general blood test. Moreover, now all babies pass through blood screening-tests, to reveal more common diseases, namely hypothyroidism and phenylketonuria. These are serious heritable diseases. One of five thousands of babies suffers from hypothyroidism, it causes decline in a thyroid glands functioning, and leads to backwardness of a baby. Phenylketonuria is less spread: about one of fifteen thousands of babies suffers from it. This disease leads to cerebral defects. If these diseases are found and treated in early age, its possible to avoid serious consequences. For example, phenylketonuria can be treated with a special diet, observing which a baby develops absolutely normal. Doctors give an injection of a medicine that improves fibrillation and reduces a chance of extravasation to babies, suffering from chronic pre-natal hypoxia (lack of oxygen).

Your baby will receive his first vaccination against tuberculosis in a maternity hospital. As a rule, such vaccination takes place on third day after birth, in the morning, in a special room. And at home a doctor- podiatrist will check a reaction to the vaccination in 4-6 weeks. In fact, therere some contra-indications for this vaccination. Usually doctors dont do it, if a babys weight is less than 2000 g or a baby suffered from intrauterine hypotrophy, infections, suppurative-septic inflammations, serious affections of central nervous system. If a mother has HIV, her baby also cannot be vaccinated against tuberculosis.

Usually a mother can go home on the fifth day, although doctors may allow mothers go home earlier, so that a mother and a baby would turn to be in a comfortable sphere, at home, in a family, as soon as possible. If a mother and a baby have no health problems, such discharge is possible on second-third day.