>> So let's talk about "The Newborn".
So when the newborn is born, when the baby is born,
the medical professionals assess their health.
So one of the things they do is to take their Apgar.
And that looks at several different things to come up with a score out of ten that kind
of determines how well the baby's doing.
So they look at heart rate, respiration, muscle tone, reflex response, and color.
Each of those is given a score of zero to two, two being the best, zero being the worst.
And they do that twice to kind of check the baby right after birth and then after a little bit
when the blood's had a chance to circulate.
Anything under five is cause for concern, and anything under three is kind
of critical, needs to be resuscitated.
They also use the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale by T. Berry Brazelton.
This isn't something that's routinely used, but if there are risk factors
or maybe the Apgar scores are low that they can use that to follow up to determine,
you know, what might be going on.
They also do heel stick blood testing.
And in California that now tests for 80 different genetics congenital orders.
So it's pretty valuable, even though I think it's traumatic for mom to watch that happen.
And they also screen for hearing problems,
as well as heart problems while the baby is in the hospital.
So there are some problems that can happen for newborns.
So let's look at those.
The first is anoxia, and that would be lack of oxygen to the brain.
And so this could come from lots of different things,
but commonly would it be an issue with the cord.
So before the baby's out and can breathe with their lungs, if that cord is compressed,
which is how that baby's getting oxygen through the mom, it can cause some issues.
Babies that are born under five pounds, eight ounces are considered low birth weight.
And then babies that are born before 37 weeks -- so a full-term pregnancy is 40 weeks,
so if they're born three weeks or more early, they are considered preterm.
Both of those babies on the right-hand side are preterm; they happen to be my twins.
And my son is on CPAP in that top picture to help him breathe.
So his Apgar scores were two and three.
So he needed a lot of help when he was born; and they were born at 32 weeks.
And then on the bottom is my daughter, and she was definitely small-for-date.
So "small-for-date" is when you weigh less than 90% of babies at the same gestational age.
And so when she came out, she wasn't even three pounds, so she was itty-bitty.
But you can see that she's not any respiratory support.
Her Apgars were actually eight and nine,
so she was doing much better, even though she was itty-bitty.
And on the flipside, you can have a baby that's born after 42 weeks, so they're post-mature.
And then the worst possible outcome would be stillborn, and that is when the baby dies
in the womb after that 20- to 24-week period
where they would be considered potentially viable on the outside of the womb.
So what happens with full-term newborns -- because these things don't necessarily qualify
to preterm infants, or maybe even post-mature.
So average size is about seven and a half pounds, and about 20 inches long.
So this little guy is just under average.
Their head is about 25% of their body length.
And all of their brain cells, their neurons are present, but the connections have
yet to be made, or many of the connections have yet to be made.
They tend to have a misshapen head, especially if they were born vaginally,
because their head has to squish to get through the vaginal canal,
and thankfully their heads are moldable.
And so they may come out with kind of a cone-shaped head or even a bruised head.
Babies may have lanugo, which is a downy body hair,
and you can see that over here in this image.
This is actually two different babies' shoulders.
They may also come out with vernix, which is a waxy white substance covering their body.
They tend to have enlarged genitals, maybe even swelling
of the breasts due to the hormones in the womb.
And then you have to deal with the umbilical cord, which they're actually
in the process of cutting here in this picture.
So often, we see those adorable Anne Geddes types of pictures of newborns,
and that's what we get in our head; when reality is not quite as adorable.
But with time and maybe a little bit of posing, we can get to that adorable feature.
So some other things about newborns to know, they sleep about 16-1/2
out of the 24-hour period, but obviously not all in one chunk; so they wake often,
typically every two to three hours.
And they are equipped with reflexes, such as a sucking reflex and a rooting reflex,
which helps them feed, reflexes such as breathing and blinking,
and then some other ones like grasping and stepping.
And you're going to learn more about those when we look
at the physical development during infancy and toddlerhood.
And as far as their sensory capacities, because there's very little light in the wound,
virtually none, vision doesn't develop very well in the womb.
So they come out with really poor vision.
But what's really interesting is about where their vision is greatest;
but you're going to learn more about later, too.
They happen to have very keen hearing, and they can actually recognize music and rhythms
that they've heard in the womb, and they definitely recognize their mother's voice,
because they've been listening to it their entire fetal development period.
They're sensitive to touch, temperature, and pain.
So there's -- when you talk about things like circumcision that comes
in that they do actually have those senses.
They also have innate taste preferences.
So if you put different flavors in newborn babies, they may facial expressions
that can kind of show you what they like and what they don't like;
and perhaps not surprisingly, they like sweet and breast milk is actually sweet.
And it's also really interesting to know that they perceive the world in an intermodal way.
Right, so they don't just use one sense, they integrate those senses.
And if you watch "The Nine Months That Made Me", that is something that that video talks about.
So that is it for "The Newborn".
You're going to learn a lot more about development in the coming chapters.