2023-11-11 by Khushi Goel
Why do newborns cry at birth?
A little while ago, we shared that babies do not cry inside the mother’s womb, but they do prepare themselves to cry after coming out in the real world. As soon as the baby comes out of the mother’s womb, it starts crying. And if it doesn’t cry on its own, the doctor spanks the baby to make it cry. The first cry of a baby is extremely important as it provides a lot of information about the baby’s well-being.
Babies live in a protective environment inside the womb. They rely on the mother’s body for nutrition and use placenta for gaseous exchange. Which means, babies do not need to breathe inside the womb because their oxygen supply is also dependent on the mother's placenta. Hence their lungs remain filled with fluids instead of gasses.
Within 20 seconds after birth, the baby takes its first breathe. This is a big change in the baby’s body, since this is the first time air flows into their body, expanding the lungs. While exhaling, the fluids leave the baby’s lungs and the first cry of the baby is heard. The voice box (or larynx) also undergoes major changes to maintain the now-functioning breathing system, leading to a cry. The cry is also triggered by several other factors including, temperature change, environmental change, gravitational force experienced by the baby, etc. This explains that the first cry of a baby is actually caused by exaggerated breathing.
Doctors examine the quality of a baby’s first cry to determine whether the baby is healthy or not. If they observe an uncommon pattern, or pitch modulations in a baby’s cries, they run certain tests to determine if there is an underlying cause for this.
References
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4439709/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8437117/#:~:text=Crying%20is%20associated%20with%20the,neonatal%20transition%20to%20air%2Dbreathing.
- https://www.osteopathicresearch.org/files/original/c19ccb2fd4a3129986e0fc4b65b23c956e737f97.pdf