WILTIMS #356: Baby

Today was my first day in the Well Baby Nursery. This is the unit in the hospital where the brand new babies and mothers recover from the delivery and are screened for any complications. Our first patient today was born 12 minutes before we examined him. There was a stretch of time thereafter when I was the person who had spent the most time with that baby in his whole life. Weird.

One of the first things that happens after a baby is born in a hospital in the US is we take a couple drops of blood from their heel (because stabbing a needle in the vein of a 1-day-old is impossible and they can't reach their own heel yet to mess with the bandage). We then run a battery of newborn screening tests that varies from state to state. In NY, we test for over 40 different genetic or congenital diseases that might otherwise go unnoticed but require intervention to live a longer, healthier life.

I'm going to take this opportunity for a PSA: It's surprisingly common (at around 1 in every 5,000 births) for there to be ambiguous genitalia at birth. So, if you catch the parents using "it" as the pronoun for their newborn while their baby needs to stay a bit longer in the nursery or NICU, just be mindful that the parents might be going through a confusing and stressful time. Remember that there are inbetweens when it comes to a person's sex. Sometimes, the genitalia are ambiguous because of a genetic or hormonal imbalance that, once treated, will resolve; other times, it won't. The only reason these situations are difficult for the parents and eventually the kids, is the social stigma we have towards the gray areas in our false dichotomies. So, let's stop it with a little education.

TIL: When a baby is born as a presumed male their hospital name is [Last Name], Baby Boy. When born seemingly female, they are [Last Name], Baby Girl. When the gender is not immediately apparent, they are [Last Name], Baby.