Months of waiting and preparation; hours in the hospital that end with tears and congratulations. And suddenly, the overwhelming responsibility of having to take care of that newborn for the rest of your days. You are going to have to learn how to hold the baby in your arms. But that love prevails and not the burden. As in everything, in the birth of a child you have to go step by step. Especially on your first day, when there is so much to do. Therefore, it is important to have information about the baby’s first 24 hours.
During the first 24 hours of life, babies undergo different medical inspections in order to analyze their health and ensure that it evolves in the most favorable way possible. These examinations carried out by health personnel are divided into two phases, those that are carried out immediately after the baby is born and those that take place later.
The Apgar test is the first to be performed, exactly at the first and fifth minute after birth. Its objective is to determine the state of health of the newborn. To do this, you will undergo an examination of the state of your skin, respiratory effort, reflexes, muscle tone and heart rate. The doctor or nurse will score each of these parameters to obtain an average that guides the baby’s condition. This way you will know if you need any kind of medical support or if everything is normal.
Other routine procedures are then carried out, such as cleaning the newborn’s nasal passages or taking a measurement of its weight, length and head circumference. Another common action in hospitals, as explained by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), consists of the application of an ointment or eye drops to prevent possible infections.
No matter how prepared you think you are for motherhood, with everything you need to know about the rise in breast milk or the essential things for the baby waiting at home, doubts always arise. However, these are usually very common issues that torment the majority of mothers and fathers. Pediatrician Cristina Royo Bolea answers some of them.
A very common one is due to when the baby’s head is deformed or seems pointy. The specialist calls for calm, it is perfectly normal. The bones of the newborn’s head “are not yet sealed and are very deformable, which is why they can pass through the birth canal,” she explains. In a few days he will assume his normal form.
Another has to do with weight loss: “All newborns have weight loss in the first two days of life.” These can reduce this figure by up to 9% without posing a problem to your health.
As for the pacifier, the specialist warns and recommends only resorting to it if the breastfeeding process is going to be done with a bottle. The reason is that the position of the newborn’s mouth is different in both methods. In case of breastfeeding, the baby adopts a position with the lips wide open, “the more areola the better”, she advises. Instead, with a bottle or pacifier the opposite happens: she closes her lips and mouth. Therefore, it is not recommended to mix both methods. “If you put a pacifier on it, it will mess up when it is time to suck (…). This then interferes with the sucking of the breast and, therefore, with the initiation of proper breastfeeding”.
