birthmark – my daughter had one. Don’t worry – it’ll go away on its own. “We were due to go back when Sophie was six months old, but we went back long before then as the mark began to get darker and to swell and we were worried it was some sort of tumour. We saw a skin specialist in London when she was three months old. She started on steroids and almost immediately the mark stopped growing. We were lucky, they think there won’t be a permanent mark, but those first months of her life were dreadful. There was all that uncertainty, all that fear for the future, and all that guilt. Even though this wasn’t a life-threatening condition, and it didn’t mean she had any permanent disability, that mark takes away the enjoyment and all the joy of her arrival even now. I look back at photographs of her when she was newly born and I think: “I should be thinking what a beautiful baby she was”, but I’m not. I’m thinking: “Look at that red mark. Little did we know.”’
BIRTHMARKS
A brown mark – these are present in about ten per cent of babies: sometimes dark brown, sometimes a pale, milky coffee colour. Harmless. May not fade but no treatment necessary.
Mole – a very few babies are born with a mole; raised, flat, dark or light, of any shape. They are only a cause for concern if they suddenly get larger, itch or bleed. If this happens, see your GP.
Mongolian blue spot – a large, blue-grey or brown mark which occurs reasonably frequently in dark-skinned babies, usually on their back or bottom. Harmless. Soon fades.
Port wine stain – a flat, purple-red birthmark caused by blood vessels under the skin; usually harmless but can be distressing for parents, and permanent without treatment. Nowadays, laser treatment can remove these birthmarks safely and effectively in four or five treatments, which can usually be started almost immediately.
Stork bites – small pink blotches, usually near the eyelid. Harmless. Will fade. No treatment required.
Strawberry birthmarks – raised, red marks. Usually occur on the face or neck. They eventually stop growing – although they may initially get larger before they shrink again – and usually fade completely during childhood. May need treatment if it is near your baby’s eyes, or in an awkward place where it could cause her discomfort. In these cases, the mark can be removed with laser therapy.
Tiny brown marks – usually round… stop panicking – it’s a freckle.
DURING THE first 24 hours after the birth, a paediatrician will visit you to check over your baby. The paediatrician will check things like:
Your baby’s hips – to make sure they are fitting nicely in their socket and have not been slightly dislocated by the birth
The fontanelles: your baby will have two main fontanelles – soft spots on her head where the skull bones haven’t yet grown over and fused together.
IT’S NORMAL for the fontanelles to appear slightly indented, and you may notice a pulse beating through the skin. You may worry that they are very fragile, but they are covered by toughened membranes. If they do become very sunken or raised, this is a useful warning sign that your baby is unwell, possibly dehydrated and needs medical attention.
All babies, while in the womb, are covered with a fine fuzz of hair called lanugo. Sometimes there will still be a little of this lanugo left when the baby is born – but it will soon rub off.
Some babies may be born with coarse hair, often across the shoulder blades or down the spine, which can alarm parents. Most of this will fall out – it just rubs off.
In fact, the hair your baby is born with on his head may well not last – if you look at new babies a couple of weeks old, you will notice that they have a little bald patch on the back of their heads where the hair has been rubbed away by the mattress. All the hair is gradually replaced, and the colour it will finally be cannot be judged from the colour he started out with – many babies change from fair to dark, and some vice-versa.
A blister on the baby’s upper lip concerns some parents, but it is only a ‘sucking blister’, an indication of your baby’s enthusiasm for feeding. The blister may disappear between feeds, it may not. Babies seem entirely oblivious to the blisters and they soon fade as feeding frequency decreases.
If there’s anything that worries you, ask your midwife or health visitor. They will be visiting you regularly to check things like this. If your baby has a condition which needs further treatment, you will be given further information and often the names and contact numbers of support groups. If in doubt, ask.
VITAMIN K has been much in the news the last few years as health authorities and trusts have been rethinking their policies on this issue.
A few years ago, almost every newborn baby in this country was automatically given an injection of vitamin K just after birth with the aim of preventing haemorrhagic disease – a rare but dangerous condition in which the baby’s blood fails to clot in the event of any bleeding. Vitamin K prevents this disease developing and thus the injection programme gained widespread acceptance. No one knows why babies are born with low levels of vitamin K compared to adults, but it may be a safety measure in the womb when cells are dividing very quickly.
Then a study was published which showed a possible link between vitamin K injections and childhood cancer. Although the link was never proven, many health authorities decided to err on the side of caution and replace the routine injection with an oral dose of vitamin K, which was not linked with any problems.
You will find that your baby will be offered a preventive dose of vitamin K shortly after she is born. It is up to you and your partner to decide, well beforehand, whether and how you want her to have this. The disease it prevents is rare, but possibly fatal, and it isn’t possible to predict which babies will develop the disease. Babies who develop bleeding are usually found to have an underlying liver problem. If you want more information before making your decision, discuss it with your midwife.
THERE ARE many new skills to learn, but all new parents experience this daunting realisation: just how much they have to learn. Rose, like many new mothers, had to start from the beginning: ‘“Have you fed and changed him?” the nurse said to me at six o’clock in the morning, when I’d only had him at ten the night before. And I thought, “What? Me? No.” So I went and looked for the stuff I’d need and I didn’t know where it was, and everyone had just left me. Then this other nurse came round and I was in tears. She said, “Are you alright, love?” I said, “No, I don’t know what I’m doing!” So she showed me. She was really nice. She had two little boys of her own and showed me which bits to wipe and which bits to use where…you know, all that stuff they give you in hospital, all those gauze things…you don’t know which end to use what on. The gauze was for wiping his bottom, apparently and I’d been trying to wash his face with it.’
BEING IN hospital can make things very public, as Hilary found: ‘It was awful, that first time. I felt like I was on show, like everyone was watching me. I’m sure they weren’t, they were all too busy with their own nappies, but it was a very testing time. And I felt like Lucy was
