We know that the stress, fear or anxiety of the mother affects the development and birth of a baby, and much progress has been made to reduce and control those feelings, especially at the time of delivery. But as for the feelings of the baby at birth, little is known. The most stressful event in the life of the fetus is birth. Babies are stressed at the time of delivery, what extent? It will depend on the type of delivery.
Depending on how you reach the world, that baby's stress can vary. Professor Vivette Glover and her team, a specialist in perinatal psychobiology at Imperial College London, has conducted studies to find out to what extent babies are stressed. They have reached certain conclusions after measuring the level of cortisone in the umbilical cord of babies, immediately after birth.
His research shows that the greatest degree of stress in the baby occurs when there is instrumentalization to promote birth, as with the use of forceps or suckers. On the contrary, babies who suffer less stress are those whose mothers give birth through a voluntary, scheduled caesarean section. In the intermediate point is the natural birth, vaginally and without instrumentalization.
However, given the importance of mother-baby non-separation after birth and that caesarean section can be harmful to mothers and babies in other aspects, the vaginal delivery option will always be better when possible. In fact, naturally born babies breathed better.
This is an interesting study, since attention is always placed on the mother, in relieving her pain and anxiety through pharmacological or respiratory techniques, among others, while neglecting the emotional state of the baby.
These data on the stress of babies at birth I met them yesterday in the broadcast of the program "Networks", in the 2 of RTVE, in which Eduard Punset surprises us again with a magnificent work of dissemination, as he did with the fabulous documentary about the baby's brain. I will return to this documentary, because it is worth stopping at.
