Have you ever wondered any time during these nine beautiful months of pregnancy how the baby inside the womb would feel while you are in labor? A laboring woman goes through many intense feelings, but how will the baby feel inside? While both of them are going through the process of labor, they both have different takes on experience.
Labor can be a painful, strenuous, and long process. The little baby inside is made to withstand the birthing process. During the labor, a mom can take pain medication to ease her pain, but is there anything to ease the baby? Are you worried that the baby might go through distress and trauma while you are in labor?
Here’s what a baby goes through during birthing process to come into this world.
9 Things The Baby Feels During Labor And Delivery
1. Baby Knows The Contractions
Your little wonder does know when you get contractions. The oxygen and blood level drops when you go through contractions, but it doesn’t affect the baby. The baby responds with a faster heart rate while you experience contractions. Constant fetal heart rate is monitored during labor. So when the heart rate drops, it means the baby is in distress.
2. Baby Gets Ready To Make It To Birth Canal
The laboring woman dilates and experiences the pain, the baby inside gets ready to come out through the birth canal. The head will get firmly pressed down and will turn from one side to another to make it to the birth canal. It is very frightening to think about the baby and its head getting lodged in the birth canal, but the oxygen goes to the baby through umbilical cord until birth.
3. Baby Knows About The Cramped Space
When your water breaks, the baby knows exactly what to do and gets to know about the cramped space. Your baby adjusts with the decreased fluid or amniotic water in the womb. For some women, the water gushes out fast and for others, it’s a slow trickle.
4. Epidural Side Effects Affect The Baby
Although many doctors say the epidural does not affect the fetus inside, it is not wholly true. Research says that the side effects of epidural will show on the baby. A delayed reflex in the baby to breastfeed after delivery signals that some medication through epidural reaches the baby as well.
5. Baby Feels The Emotions
Your baby inside is well in tune with your emotions. When the pregnant mom feels stressed, the hormones around the baby change. The growing fetus can hear if the mom’s heart is thumping peacefully or out of control. Stress during pregnancy could affect the baby after birth. Depression and irritability in the baby after birth is possible.
6. Baby Can Sleep On And Off During Labor
It might be a little difficult for the mom to get a shut eye while in active labor, the baby inside doesn’t feel difficult to snooze off. Babies can sleep on and off during labor process. Although it is unclear on how much a baby can see, feel, or hear while inside, the sleeping might just be a part of the normal routine.
7. Baby Gets Ready For First Breath
As you push the baby out and squeeze through the birth canal, the lungs of the baby are squeezed. It is only to allow all the fluids out of the lungs to get the first breath after birth. Cesarean babies don’t experience the essential squeezed lungs.
8. Baby Feels The Big Push
Finally after going through a lot of labor process, when the mom is ready to give the big push, the baby feels the push. After being in the confined space of the birthing canal, the baby comes out very easily with that one big push. While a baby born vaginally feels everything, a C-section baby doesn’t feel anything.
9. Baby Also Gets Overwhelmed
After staying in the dark confines of the womb for nine long months, when the baby comes out into the new world, they do experience the overwhelming feeling. The sounds, lights, and other new things would definitely bewilder them. This is when the loving mom comes out to comfort the newborn by cuddling and keeping them warm – just like how it was inside the womb.
Now, your baby recognizes the voice and gets comfortable. Labor is a painful and exhausting experience that reaps the best reward in the world.
