During the baby's passage through the birth canal, the umbilical cord
is squeezed, reducing the supply of blood from his mother. The oxygen
level in the baby's blood goes down, and the carbon dioxide level rises.
When the baby is born, the drop in oxygen makes him take a deep breath,
causing his lungs to unfold and fill to full capacity. When the freshly
expanded lungs suddenly release their contents, the air rushes through
the narrow channel of the larynx and produces the baby's dramatic
announcement of his presence, his first cry: "Here I am!"
A popular word today is multimedia, but the brainstem has been in that business for a long time. The brainstem receives incoming sensations through separate channels, or "modes." Information from the eyes is in the "visual mode," what a baby hears is in the "auditory mode" and what he feels by touching his skin is in the "somatosensory mode." His brainstem integrates the input from the different channels, a multimodal process.
Content provided on this site is for educational purposes only and should not be construed to be medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.
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