We recently reported on the incredible Brazilian newborn who was caught on camera walking just moments after her birth. The baby was being held up by a midwife and appeared to be taking steps. That video was taken by the nurses in the delivery room and has been viewed over 100 million times, but now people are speaking out in anger.
When babies are born, they are checked for certain reflexes, which indicate proper development. That walking that we all saw was simply that: a reflex. When a baby’s feet are placed on a surface, “walking” occurs. And the reason it happens is to help that little one get to its mother’s breast to nurse. The Internet had such a negative reaction to the video because the midwife in the delivery room should have known better and allowed the baby to have her first skin-to-skin contact with her mother.
Working Mother has more on people’s reactions:
Many of the commenters were surprised to see a baby attempting to walk, and others joked the baby would become an athlete.
However, some were upset because of what the baby should be doing instead—having skin-to-skin contact with her mother. One user wrote: “Jesus, this midwife knows nothing! This is a breast crawl reflex. Baby should be doing this on mummy to get to the milk with lots of skin-to-skin, not being paraded around on a cold table!”
Another wrote: “I don’t like this video. It looks like they are playing with a newborn baby. It’s just a reflex. What that baby was supposed to be doing is breastfeeding from her mother’s chest. The baby is not a puppy to play with.”
Yet another said, “If this was my baby, I would be extremely angry! It agitated me just watching.”
Other people pointed out in the comments that a baby trying to walk isn’t remarkable at all, and that the baby was able to walk because of a stepping reflex. Someone commented, “Babies automatically do it when they are stood up; [it’s the] same with grasping fingers or sucking. It’s done as part of a newborn assessment, to make sure they developed properly and have the appropriate reflexes.”
There has not been any information to emerge from the mother of that newborn in the video. It is unclear if she was unhappy with what the midwives were doing with her baby (or if she was even aware of it prior to the video’s release). But hopefully, mommy and baby had some proper bonding time soon after the birth.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7D6wiQXguYs
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