How Does His Head Fit Through There? Every pregnant woman
wonders -- often with a wince or two -- how a seven-, eight-, or
even nine-pound baby manages to fit through an opening roughly
the diameter of a bagel. But Mother Nature equips infants with a
soft skull for a reason. "When you touch a newborn's head, it
feels almost like tiles," says Richard Auerbach, MD,
neonatologist at the Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital, in
Hollywood, Florida. "And where the grout would be are soft areas
that allow a baby's head to remain pliable as it passes through
the birth canal." The head of every baby born vaginally becomes
misshapen to some degree during the birth process, but even the
most pronounced "conehead" returns to normal within a few days.
How Does Baby Breathe? Labor produces mechanical and
physiological changes that help prepare your baby for her first
gulp of air. "A fetus doesn't get his oxygen from the air, so he
has to get it from his mom," explains Sandy Falk, MD, clinical
instructor of ob-gyn at Brigham an