What Happened to This Baby's Head During Birth Is Completely Blowing Our Minds
Nikki was four days past her due date when she and her husband arrived at the hospital for the [...]
Nikki was four days past her due date when she and her husband arrived at the hospital for the birth of their second child. She was also nine centimeters dilated, which meant the baby was on his way — the only issue was that he was positioned slightly sideways.
"Her son's head was a little bit crooked in the birth canal but her body and the baby knew what to do," Kayla Reeder, the couple's birth photographer, told GoodHousekeeping.com. "She pushed him out without intervention."
Baby Graham entered the world an hour after Nikki went into labor — with an oblong head.
"The love, adoration, relief that he was finally here radiated through the family and Graham was perfect in every way. Right down to his little cone head," Reeder told POPSUGAR.
Reeder's photos of Graham's oblong head look shocking, but a molded or disfigured head in newborns isn't all that rare. In fact, it's perfectly normal, according to St. Luke's Hospital.
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Newborns are born with soft, malleable heads because of gaps in between bone plates in the skull – hence the soft spot on the top of babies' heads. The gaps close as the brain grows and develops, but sometimes the pressure from birth and fluid and blood that has collected in and around the brain during delivery can result in an abnormal cone shaped head.
It's usually nothing to worry about, as the head will return to its normal shape in just a few days.
Babies born breech or via C-section don't go through the birth canal head first (or at all), so that's why their heads are perfectly round.
"His head was tilted a bit to the side so the molding isn't centered and it caused his mama to push for a bit longer than if he would have been in a better position," Reeder told POPSUGAR. "Soon after birth the molding went down and by the time he was a few days old, he had a perfectly shaped head. It's no cause for alarm or concern in this case and his birth was in no way traumatic because of it."
Photo Credit: K Reeder Photography
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