At birth, the baby’s head is the widest part of the body (proportionally), with a diameter equal to that of the thorax. As the child grows, as is logical, the head does so at a slower rate (imagine with a few years with the head as wide as the thorax) and the rest of the body advances more quickly.
That is why it is not an easy task for the baby’s head to pass through the birth canal, although nature makes it possible. Often the baby’s head is deformed during birth to be able to pass through the maternal pelvis, and we see it with a “strange shape.”
The shape of the head
Normally this shape is tapered, slightly pointed. If the cervix is not dilated enough, the delivery becomes more difficult and the deformation may be more evident. The newborn’s hair could, however, disguise this elongated shape. But how is it possible that the baby’s head does not have the same round shape as in ultrasound scans?
Again, wise nature has endowed us with a skull divided into several bone plates. At birth, these bones are not welded but are joined together by elastic, fibrous and strong tissues, which leave some “holes” more or less evident from the outside, known as fontanelles.
The skull has yet to grow (and inside the brain), so that “flexibility” that changes the shape of the baby’s head at birth has its function beyond the fact that it can actually cross the birth canal.
Inside the head, the brain will grow physically but there will also be multiple internal transformations that increase the complexity of the neural connections.
Obviously, we will only have the “strange” shape of the baby’s head if it was born vaginally, since in the case of cesarean section the head does not suffer any pressure.
Total, that between the strange shape of the head, the wrinkles that are born, its undefined color, the remains of vernix, blood, etc., the newborn is far removed from the idyllic image of the chubby baby in the movies. But soon it will look a lot like …
Ultimately, the shape of the baby’s head at birth depends on the way in which it has come into the world: if it is through a vaginal delivery, it is usual that it is not a rounded head. However, in a few days the baby’s head assumes its usual shape, and there each one will have their own peculiarities.
In Babies and more | How can that head go through the birth canal?
