Moving worlds.

The transfer from life in the womb to life outside is extraordinary.

Before birth, most of your baby’s blood circulation passed through the placenta, but bypassed the lungs. After delivery, when the placental flow stops. Instead of going from the baby’s heart to the placenta, the blood from the heart needs to redirect through their newly expanded lungs.

During their birth their entire head has had to change shape. Called Fetal Head Molding where the skull bones overlap to allow their head to travel down the birth canal. Think rugby ball as opposed to football. I wonder how this must feel to them, especially in the hours to follow when the bones move back into place again.

While happily residing inside mum there have been dim lights, smooth surfaces and constant sound. Voices, digestion, heartbeat… the soundtrack to your baby’s early life never switches off. There is also movement and the ability to move.

We speak of this transfer as the fourth trimester, the next three months of your baby’s development just outside rather than inside the womb. The next trimester of adjustments, changes and needs.

But what interests me most of all is that moment, those first few minutes when their little lives just turn upside down. Bright lights. Being touched. Having to breathe. The sensation of their own weight and limitless space.

It is this that makes us realise the importance of post birth skin to skin with mum. The first and not last time that their mother will say, “I am here little one, and everything is going to be okay”