The smile of a newborn baby is so special that it is often also known as the "angelic smile". For many parents, this is the moment that compensates for all the fatigue and sleepless hours, but why and how does it happen? Is the child dreaming? Are you remembering the time in the womb?
Babies smiled even before they were born
If you were lucky enough to see your baby smiling on ultrasound, do not think that you were imagining untrue things. A study of over 500 pregnant women with 4D ultrasound found that up to 31 fetuses were smiling for an average of 3.21 seconds each. In this way, the scientists determined that spontaneous smiles occur even when the babies are still in the womb, long before their birth. Around the 26th week of pregnancy, babies can smile and even cry inside the womb.
The first smiles are involuntary
As mentioned earlier, these actions performed by the baby in the womb are considered "reflexive" actions. This means that they are an immediate response to a stimulus, which in the case of infants is usually a sense of inner well-being. Unlike many of us, it is very likely that babies are not actually aware that they are smiling, so we are talking about an involuntary movement of their muscles, as in cases where they suck their thumb.
The right time to smile
When sleeping, a newborn normally goes through 2 stages of sleep: active sleep and deep sleep. The active phase, also known as REM, which is an acronym for "Rapid Eye Movement", is thought to be produced by intense brain activity. This happens approximately 60-90 minutes after you fall asleep. During this stage, we are more likely to see babies smiling or doing other involuntary actions.
Smile as a reaction / response
Since they can not speak, laughter and crying are the main means of communication of babies. This is why their smiles can also be a response to positive feelings or soothing sensations such as a caress on the cheek or a lullaby.
Newborns do not dream, but they have memory
As you see a baby smiling as he sleeps, you may even think she is having a dream, but this is unlikely to happen. A newborn baby does not yet have enough experiences to remember or the ability to imagine.
Sleeping in the first weeks of life has some very specific functions which include helping babies to develop their brain, process information and consolidate memory, which begins to take shape in the mother’s womb. The latter, in fact, can be verified by observing how babies can recognize the voice of their mother or father just hours after they are born.
Source: Science Direct, BBC, Bright Side
