Birth

Have you watched a baby being born? Is there anything more incredible? For at least one comparison, I think of the long checklist and thousands of procedures that have to go right in order to get a space shuttle flight launched. If we only knew, my guess is that the birth of a baby has just about as many if not ore system that have to work and be switched on and off in a coordinated fashion to make that happen. Think about it. The baby breathes and gulps placental fluid, is provided all life-support intravenously through the umbilical cord, is constantly held tightly, hears every breath and stomach gurgle from mom and lives in a dark warm world. Then, in a relatively short period of time, baby’s head has to go through six very specific maneuvers as it gets properly positioned in the birth canal. It has to engage, descend and flex, rotate internally, then extend, restore the angle, and rotate externally. During the maneuvers, the cervix has to dilate or efface, and the uterus contracts rhythmically, going top to bottom, as if milking the baby down. Hormone and nerve systems are busy. After some tortuous squeezing, we can have a successful birth. Baby is suddenly out into the blinding lights of the real world – it is much colder, noises are much louder, it has to quickly switch over to its own breathing system, and the nutrition systems are now different. The placenta has to be birthed, mother starts producing milk, and baby learns to feed in a new way. A lot of programmed physiology takes place at every birth. I simply can’t imagine the complexity of the checklist it would require. I am not sure even if we know all the steps involved.