Baby Check

I enjoy going to the neonatal ward. With all those chubby newborns and happy parents around, you can’t help but smile and share their joy. Yesterday I followed a resident on the ward and did a few well baby checks, which is one of the skills we have to learn during this rotation. Before each newborn is discharged, they are given a once-over by a doctor to make sure they are normal beyond having ten fingers, ten toes, and no obvious deformities.

Like everything else in medicine, there is a system to doing a baby check. You literally go from head to toe and front to back to examine the baby. I especially enjoy doing the primitive reflexes like the grasp reflex in the hands and feet, a telltale sign of our arboreal ancestry, and the Moro reflex, which is believed to be the only unlearned fear in the newborn. Today we had our baby check skills assessed by the neonatal consultant. The way I interacted with the baby I checked must have looked really natural, the consultant asked me afterward if I have kids of my own. Well, besides the four babies I delivered during the O&G rotation, yesterday would have been the first time I handled newborns. So maybe I do have a knack for handling little babies.