Anencephaly

[chaoticidealism]

I'm on the last day of finals week, finishing up a term paper for a fetal behavior class. My paper is on the neurological development of the premature infant, but along the way, I came up with some interesting ideas that can't go in the paper... so they are going here

Comments

[anonymous]

I don't know...this is such an interesting article & I totally get the similarities between neurotypical newborns & anencephalic ones. But here's where i get confused...anencephalic infants are purportedly blind & deaf since the nerves that make us able to see & hear end into nothingness. There's no cerebral cortex for them to connect to. Ive looked at countless pictures & videos of live anencephalic infants & one thing I've noticed is that they rarely open their eyes & when they do they are typically pointing outward in 2 different directions. I have 3 kids so i know what a typical newborn is like & regardless of what these moms say...to me they don't behave anything like a normal newborn. They are limp, they're cry is very different & the "smiles" Ive seen on these infant's faces are very different...almost like the smile of an older person. I've seen videos of them born with these strange smiles platered on their faces that just stay there...they aren't the fleeting little smiles you see go across a normal newborn's face as they sleep..& as anyone who's had a baby knows..they don't intentionally smile fir several weeks so when these moms