After nine months of prenatal visits and anticipation, the big day finally arrives and Baby makes his debut. But moments after delivery a swirl of activity ensues, which can make new parents wonder what's going on.

Most standard delivery room procedures happen so quickly that weary new moms don't think fast enough to ask. And medical personnel perform them so routinely that they might not think to explain them, which is why getting your questions answered beforehand is so important.

During your baby's birth, he goes from a dark, wet world where everything he needs is supplied through the placenta and umbilical cord, to a bright environment filled with strange things and strange people. In his first few minutes of life outside your womb, his umbilical cord is cut and great changes occur in the way his body functions that allow him to survive in this new place.

"In the mother's uterus, the baby was getting oxygen from her," says Dr. Frank Bowen, the director of the Volunteers in Medicine Clinic in Hilton Head Island, S.C. During labor the baby is slightly deprived of oxygen and builds up higher levels of carbon dioxide. This creates the baby's urge to take that first breath and start breathing when he is born.

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