# When does a baby take its first breath? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 4, 2007, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-does-a-baby-take-its-first-breath/428786 "2007-12-04T16:39:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2007, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-does-a-baby-take-its-first-breath/428786/41 "2007-12-05T23:56:56Z")
I said _fun_ not just less stressful. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2007, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-does-a-baby-take-its-first-breath/428786/42 "2007-12-06T00:45:24Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot] [Ina May Gaskin](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ina_May_Gaskin)(who speaks in one of her books the deep dark secret of the birthing room: sometimes women orgasm during labor!) [/QUOTE] :dubious: That would be fun for the mother, but how is that fun for the baby? ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2007, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-does-a-baby-take-its-first-breath/428786/43 "2007-12-06T03:40:53Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot] Certainly. Meet [Frederic Leboyer.](http://www.pregnancy-info.net/leboyer.html) [Michael Odent](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Odent). [Robert A. Bradley](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_A._Bradley), and [Ina May Gaskin](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ina_May_Gaskin)(who speaks in one of her books the deep dark secret of the birthing room: sometimes women orgasm during labor!) [/QUOTE] I believe Bryan is referring to the **baby’s** experience during labor and delivery, not the mother’s. 😉 Bryan, why should being born hurt? The uterine contractions squeeze the baby–but squeezing doesn’t hurt. And same thing with the baby being squeezed down through the vagina and out through the pelvis; the whole point is that the vagina is extremely elastic, and stretches to accommodate the baby, not the other way around. And the way the mother’s pelvic opening also literally stretches to accommodate the baby is legendary among new mothers who are dismayed to find they can no longer fit into their size 8 skirts even after they’ve lost the “baby weight”. Your hips just never go back. The birth process is a long, slow process of gradually molding both the mother and baby’s bodies to accommodate each other. Things stretch and “give”, nothing is forced. The baby isn’t being painfully ejected or thrust out abruptly; she’s being very slowly squeezed out from a tube of toothpaste. What part of that would hurt? ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2007, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-does-a-baby-take-its-first-breath/428786/44 "2007-12-06T05:00:47Z")
Well, it’s not something _I’m_ eager to relive. ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2007, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-does-a-baby-take-its-first-breath/428786/45 "2007-12-06T06:12:38Z")
[QUOTE=WhyNot] Sure, the baby CAN breathe as soon as his mouth is born (or as soon as any mucus and amniotic fluid is cleared out with the sucky thing). But it doesn’t HAVE to until the placenta detaches from the uterine wall, usually about 5 minutes after the birth. It’s ingenious, really. There’s enough time for Mom to catch her breath, pick up her baby and cuddle him to her breast before he needs to organize his system enough to breathe on his own. Only once her placenta detaches is his oxygen belly line cut off internally.. [/QUOTE] Only problem is there are plenty of non ideal situations. As wonderful as such warm fuzzy ideals might be to consider they last about 2 minutes in court when someone is suing their OB for not intervening earlier. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2007, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-does-a-baby-take-its-first-breath/428786/46 "2007-12-06T12:30:52Z")
[QUOTE=drachillix] Only problem is there are plenty of non ideal situations. As wonderful as such warm fuzzy ideals might be to consider they last about 2 minutes in court when someone is suing their OB for not intervening earlier. [/QUOTE] And it’s exactly this kind of thinking which has put us in the position of having the [second highest infant mortality rate in developed nations](http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/parenting/05/08/mothers.index/index.html), IMHO. Notice that most of our infant deaths are because of babies born _too soon_, not because of inadequate prenatal care. I don’t see that changing until reforms are made in medical malpractice law: you’re right, doctors are terrified of lawsuits and many of the OBs in my area are no longer delivering because of the malpractice insurance rates. Yet home birth is still illegal in my state. Who is going to safely deliver the babies when the lay midwifes can’t and the doctors won’t? We’re creating an environment where the emergency room will be the only place to admit for delivery, with doctors unfamiliar to the mother or her case, and that can’t be the best solution, can it? Believe me, I know that the warm fuzzy ideals of childbirth don’t always pan out - I’m one of those mothers who planned a water birth and ended up with a micropreemie c-section. But our current practice of anticipating the worst is \*creating \*the worst, and something’s got to change. ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2007, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-does-a-baby-take-its-first-breath/428786/47 "2007-12-06T15:43:33Z")
[QUOTE=Bryan Ekers] Well, it’s not something _I’m_ eager to relive. [/QUOTE] Sure you don’t wanna sign up for age regression therapy? Relive your primal birth experience, not to mention all those fond intrauterine memories? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2007, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-does-a-baby-take-its-first-breath/428786/48 "2007-12-06T17:25:29Z")
[QUOTE=Duck Duck Goose] Sure you don’t wanna sign up for age regression therapy? Relive your primal birth experience, not to mention all those fond intrauterine memories? 😃 [/QUOTE] That does happen to remind me, though, of a spate of crime shows that had someone dying during “rebirthing therapy” as the case-du-jour. In a span of about two years, I’m pretty sure _Law & Order_, _CSI_ and maybe _Crossing Jordan_ all had episodes about it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-does-a-baby-take-its-first-breath/428786.md?page=2)