The newborn’s first breath

| Find out what the baby's first breath should be like at birth so that everything goes well and respiratory disorders are avoided.

At birth the respiratory system of the newborn undergoes changes that allow the baby to breathe. When breathing, gas exchange occurs in the pulmonary alveoli, carbon dioxide is expelled and exchanged for oxygen.

To successfully establish normal respiration at birth, there must be no obstructions in the respiratory tree and there must be a good neurological maturity that controls inspiration-expiration and thus avoid.

During pregnancy, the fetus performs this gas exchange through the placenta. The lungs of the fetus they are full of liquid. At seven months of gestation, all the pulmonary bronchi and alveoli are formed.

Surfactant

During childbirth, the fetus experiences a significant stress situation and fluid from your lungs is reabsorbed or it is expelled through the mouth so that the newborn can take the first breath. In a normal delivery, the pressure on the baby's chest, as it passes through the birth canal, helps it to eliminate pulmonary fluid.

Once the alveoli are filled with air for the first time, a substance called lung surfactant ensures that they do not collapse (that they are always open and do not close when the air is expelled with each breath).

Pulmonary surfactant is present in the fetus at 34 weeks of gestation and is of great help at the time of the first breath since it reduces the pressure that the baby has to exert to open the socket for the first time.

The average time for the establishment of the is of about 30 seconds.

What if it is by cesarean section?

After a scheduled cesarean section where the mother has not been in labor, has not had contractions and the newborn's chest has not been compressed along the birth canal, it may take up to several hours until all the fluid in the lungs is reabsorbed.