Fig. 43.—Appearance of cord immediately after birth.
The newborn baby’s bladder usually contains urine and this may be passed immediately after birth or not until several hours later. After the first urination the bladder may be emptied five or six times a day or oftener.
The Cord. Within a few days after birth the stump of the umbilical cord that is attached to the baby’s navel, begins to shrivel and turn black and a red line appears where the cord joins the abdomen. By the eighth or tenth day, as a rule, the cord has shrunken to a dry, black string, when it drops off and leaves an ulcer or small red area which heals entirely in the course of a few days. Figs. [43], 44, 45 and 46 show these progressive changes.
Fig. 44.—Appearance of cord four days after birth.
Fig. 45.—Appearance of navel immediately after cord has dropped off.
Skin. The soft, downy hair that may be remaining on the surface of the body usually disappears by the end of the first week and there is often a scaling of the skin which lasts for two or three weeks, while a delicate pink tint replaces the deeper color of the skin in the course of ten days or two weeks. The baby does not perspire until after the first month, ordinarily, when a very slight perspiration begins, gradually increasing until by the time the baby is a few months old he is perspiring freely.
Fig. 46.—Appearance of a normal, well healed navel.