In anticipation of your baby’s birth, you’ll be desperately excited, ready to welcome them into the world! But, you may also be feeling some anxiety. What can you expect your baby to look like? What will they do in those first few days? Is there anything you need to look out for?

Even if you’ve discussed these questions with a midwife or doctor, it doesn’t hurt to recap this information, and it might even assuage some of the anxiety you may be feeling.

So, let’s begin with what your newborn will look like.

What do newborns look like?

Despite what you may have seen in movies, birth is no picnic for baby or mother, so don’t expect to see a perfectly formed little being the moment they appear.

Face and head

Initially, babies are born puffy-faced, and often with cone-shaped heads. If the birth involved a ventouse, the top of your baby’s head may bulge a little and have a circular red mark, and if forceps were required, there may be temporary marks on your baby’s head.

Weight and size

A ‘term’ baby, a baby who isn’t born premature, will generally weigh anywhere between 2.2kg (5lb) to 4kg (10lb), and if you’ve had twins, it’s normal for one to be bigger than the other.

Skin

It’s very normal for babies (black, white or Asian) to have a greyish-blue colour at birth, but after a few breaths, their colour should begin to look healthier. For a while, the skin can also look blotchy, red, flaky, peely and lighter or darker than you’d expect. A lot of babies are also born covered in a white, creamy substance known as vernix. There’s no need to wipe this off as it’s good for your baby’s skin.

Birthmarks

You may also notice birthmarks, which are very common, entirely harmless and usually temporary. Stork marks – marks near the nape of the neck or on the eyelids – are caused by dilated blood vessels and usually disappear within the first year. Within 4 weeks of birth, strawberry birthmarks may appear. These are raised, red and dotted marks that generally fade at 2 years old. Port-wine stain birthmarks are flat red marks that appear in about 2 in 1,000 babies. These won’t generally fade away. Some babies have Mongolian blue spots which can look like bruises over the buttocks and back. These fade and usually disappear by the age of 4. If you have any concerns in regards to birthmarks, speak to your doctor or midwife.

Hormones

Something that may occur in both baby boys and girls which might surprise you is that they may have swollen genitals and breasts. There may even be a little bit of milk discharging from their breasts, and a girl baby might even have some blood coming from their vagina. This is normal, simply caused by a mother’s hormones circulating through their baby, and should disappear after a day or two.

So, now we have a pretty good idea of what your little bundle of joy will look like for those very first few days, but what can you actually expect them to do during this time?

What do newborns do?

During their very first 24 hours, your baby will spend most of their time sleeping. And, though you’ll of course be excited at their eventually having arrived, you’ll be tired too and thankful for the quiet. They will wake up occasionally and want to feel you near them, touching, cuddling, holding and feeding them.

Despite the fact that they look to be in their own little world, they can already clearly see your face (if it’s within 20-25 cm or 8 to 10 inches). Their heart rate may increase when they make eye contact with their parents, and they’ll recognise their voices and even their smells.

Your baby will also be born with a set of inbuilt reflexes:

They’ll grasp anything put into their fists.

They’ll suck and swallow milk from your breast or a bottle.

They’ll take a step if you hold them up with their toes touching a surface.

If they hear a loud noise, they may throw their arms up suddenly (this is known as the Moro reflex).

They’ll root for the nipple if you stroke their cheek with your finger or breast.

You may be wondering if there’s anything you need to keep an eye out for, and low and behold, there are one or two things.

What to look out for?

Jaundice. If the whites of your baby’s eyes or their skin is turning a yellow colour, they are jaundiced due to a high level of a substance called bilirubin in the blood. Jaundice is very common and a raised bilirubin occurs to some extent in all newborn babies. It can be caused by a number of other things, including bruising at birth, and usually occurs between day 3 and 7 of life. should you notice it, speak to a doctor or midwife. The general treatment is frequent feeding but some babies will require phototherapy. However, should you notice signs of jaundice in the first 24 hours, this can be quite serious, so get in touch with a medical professional as soon as possible.

Meconium. The first few times your baby poos, they’ll be sticky, tar-like and greenish-black in colour. This is caused by a substance known as meconium and is an accumulation of the waste products they collected in the womb. Most babies will excrete this in the first 24 hours, but some don’t. If your baby doesn’t do a black poo after 24 hours, their belly is swollen and tight, or they’re vomiting, speak to a midwife or doctor immediately. Meconium is very hard to wipe off so it can be helpful to put some nappy cream on your baby before their first poo, to make it easier to wipe away.

Noisy breathing. Many babies have surprisingly noisy breathing, they snort and snuffle and it can sound quite alarming. This is because they have tiny nasal passages and are unable to breath through the mouth for the first few months of life.

In addition, at birth their lungs are filled with liquid which clears over the first few hours so they may sound particularly noisy. If your baby seem to be struggling to breath tell your midwife or doctor

Before you take your baby home, or before your midwife leaves, a medical professional will check your baby’s:

Vision and hearing.
Heart and lungs.
Spine.
Hips. Please tell your midwife if anyone in your family had a hip problem at birth
Internal organs.
Sucking reflex.

How do I look after my baby?

So long as all has gone and does go well, all you will have to do in the first 48 hours of your beautiful new baby’s life is feed them, change the odd nappy or two and cuddle them endlessly. And of course, take lots and lots of photos!

What do newborns look like and do?

From Unii’s Newborn Journey, we share how brand new babies look and behave.