Why do babies, immediately after they are born, seem dead and have a very pale colour ?
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Another reason for baby color is a chemical our body produces called “bilirubin”, it’s just a waste product produced by being alive. Bilirubin has a yellow/orange pale color and high levels of in the skin/blood can make you turn a bit yellow/orange looking.
In utero the baby’s bilirubin is removed by the placenta, once born the baby’s liver needs to turn on and start removing it, but baby livers sometimes take a few days to get strong enough to do so. So it’s common for babies to be pale yellow/orangish for the first days due to bilirubin build up. Too much of this, btw, isn’t a good thing, so in modern medicine a doctor might choose to essentially put a new born under a tanning lamp for a few days to help. (light also breaks down bilirubin so the tanning lamp works tag team with the baby liver until it’s up to speed)
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