Why does a baby start crying as soon as it is born ?

To gain Attention.
Just like bird offspring shout with all their might and wide open beaks when the mother bird comes with food.

I imagine it’s because they are born into a cold hospital room, roughly handled after being pulled from a warm & secure womb :-/

To breathe.

My babies didnt cry. They looked around in amazement. I had them in a dark quiet room.
My grand children didn’t cry at first, but the doctors made them cry, saying they needed to to clear their lungs.

It helps them to breathe.
Human children are also different from most other species, in that they take years and years before they can fend for themselves.

I imagine it probably hurts a bit to go from “breathing” goo in the cozy uterus to breathing dry air after having your sinuses sucked with a rubber bulb. I’ve been surprised to see doctors flop a baby around like it’s no more than a heavy steak and then jam the squeeze bulb into it’s nose.

Probably for just about the same reason I cry every morning when I wake up.

Kidding. ...Sort of.

Crying helps to open up the lungs. In the uterus, babies get their oxygen from the mother’s blood, and hence her lungs. When they are born, their lungs need to inflate so the baby can breathe on its own. This first inflation is vital, because a healthy person will never totally deflate their lungs again, as the fluids in the lungs help to stop them fully deflating.

They’re probably freaked out!

Couldn’t tell you.

@FireMadeFlesh – why do they have to cry to inflate their lungs? do their lungs work inside the womb? are they fully deflated when they are inside womb? And i didn’t understand why the first inflation is vital? And what do you have to say about @Judi‘s babies? they didn’t cried.Doctors made them cry to clear their lungs of what?

@gamefu91 To clear their lungs of all the amniotic fluid they’d been “breathing” since their lungs developed.

@gamefu91; I also didn’t cut the cord until it stopped pulsing, allowing the babies to get oxygen from me while they gently adapted to breathing outside the womb. These days, liability insurance companies run the hospitals and they want to make sure they get a good scream out of them in order to be sure they’re lungs are clear because of a small risk of infection or pnemonia if they don’t.

@Judi…. well? Have you cut the cord yet??

Lol! My 26 year old son is screaming his head off lately feeling like his family has abandoned him (he moved 1000 miles away) so I guess, finally, that cord is being severed.

He moved and he’s complaining about abandonment? ! LOL!

@gamefu91 Crying is essentially convulsions of the thoracic cage and diaphragm, accompanied by tears and vocal sounds. These convulsions are stronger than normal attempts to breathe, and it takes greater than usual strength to inflate the lungs for the first time (think of a brand new balloon compared to one that has been inflated before). Mature lungs have a substance called surfactant in them that prevents them from totally deflating, and hence making breathing easier, but for it to form its surface tension the lungs need to be inflated first.

In @Judi‘s case, they primarily need to clear the lungs of amniotic fluid that may have gone into the airways (the trachea and major bronchi are held open by cartilage), but also to check for conditions such as meconium aspiration and hyaline membrane disease. Basically, a good cry is a clinical confirmation for the obstetrician that the baby’s respiratory system is healthy. If the baby doesn’t cry it isn’t a big deal unless it is accompanied by other signs and symptoms, because as with @Judi the doctor will make them cry before the umbilical cord is severed.