15 surprising newborn baby facts: photos

Your baby could hear your voice and other sounds from about 23 weeks of pregnancy. So although she won't say her first word until she's about a year old, she's learning about language right from the start.

Your voice is your baby's favourite sound, and she'll love to hear you talk and sing to her. It's never too early to start reading to your baby, and the more words she hears now, the better her language skills are likely to be later on.

Newborns naturally hold their breath when underwater, and even splash about with their arms and legs. If you take your baby to a swimming class you'll see these innate talents in action!

Your baby can go swimming as soon as you like, but if you're planning on taking her yourself, wait until after your six-week check. It's important to make sure you're healing well before going in the pool.

When you do go swimming with your baby, make sure that she doesn't get too chilly. Choose a special baby pool with warm water, or try a baby wetsuit instead of a regular swimming costume.

About a third of babies are born with a birthmark of some kind. The most common type is a stork mark (pictured), also known as a salmon patch or angel kiss. This is a pale pink patch on your baby's face or neck, which may appear more red when she cries. Stork marks usually disappear within six months.

Most birthmarks are harmless and will disappear on their own, though some can be a sign of a condition that needs treatment. If your baby has a birthmark, or any unexplained bumps or colouring on her skin, ask your GP to take a look.

Newborn babies can only see clearly about 20cm to 30cm (8in to 12in) in front of their faces. Everything else is a blur of light, shape and movement. Fortunately, this is the perfect distance for your baby to gaze into your eyes as you feed her!

By the time your baby's one month or two months old, she'll be able to focus her eyes on a toy when you move it in front of her face. And by the end of the fourth trimester, she'll be able to see close-up colours and shapes much more clearly.

Help your baby to explore her developing vision by showing her toys with bold patterns in bright, vivid colours.

Your baby was born with about 300 bones. As she grows, many of these will get harder, and some will fuse together.

For example, the skull starts as three pieces of bone joined by cartilage, so that it can fit through the birth canal. This is why your baby's head has soft spots. But these pieces eventually join to make one solid bone.

By the time your baby reaches adulthood, she's likely to have just 206 bones in her body.

Babies need to learn how to feed from the breast, just as you need to learn how to help them latch on. This can make the first few weeks of breastfeeding tricky and uncomfortable, but it does get easier with time.

Babies have tiny tummies, and need to feed often at first. So if you're breastfeeding, you're likely to spend a lot of time with your baby at your breast in the early weeks. Be prepared, and remember that there's plenty of support available.

A newborn's stomach is only the size of a hazelnut. This explains why very young babies need to feed so often – they just don't have room in their tiny tummies to drink all the milk they need at once! It also means that even the smallest of air bubbles takes up precious space, which is why your baby may need winding during and after feeds.

Your baby's stomach will grow quickly, reaching the size of an apricot by the end of the first week, and the size of a large hen's egg by the end of two weeks. However, she'll still need to feed at night until she's at least six months old.

Some breastfeeding mums worry that if their newborn loses weight in the first few days, it means they're not getting enough breastmilk. This isn't true.

In the first few days after your baby's born, it's normal for her to lose between five per cent and 10 per cent of her body weight.Most babies get back to their birth weight by the time they're about two weeks old.

Your baby's first poos are made up of a dark, sticky substance called meconium. After that, what you find in your baby's nappy will depend on whether you're breastfeeding or formula-feeding. One unsung benefit of breastfeeding is that it tends to make baby poo less smelly!

Try not to worry too much about how often your baby does a poo. It may be several times a day, it may be once every three days. The important thing is just to figure out what's normal for your baby, and look out for any changes.

Our baby poo photo gallery may not be pretty, but it's great for helping you work out what's normal and what may need further attention.

Babies are born with extra fluid in their bodies, which can cause their genitals to be a bit swollen for the first few days. Baby girls are also born with some of their mother's hormones, and this can sometimes result in a creamy white discharge, or even a mini period in the first few days.

This is all perfectly normal in the early days with your baby. However, you should see your GP if your baby boy still has swollen genitals after a few days, or if your baby girl still has discharge after six weeks.

Your baby will be soothed and comforted by sounds that remind her of the rhythmic noises she heard in your womb (uterus). The sound of your heartbeat when you hold her close during skin-to-skin may also help to calm her and regulate her breathing.

Many babies also enjoy the sound of a washing machine or a vacuum cleaner, the thrum of a car engine as they sit in the back seat, or just some simple white noise. There are plenty of toys and apps that make these kinds of sounds, or just search for a free white noise video online.

Your baby could smell and taste before she was even born. She'll quickly grow to love your own natural scent, and it may help to soothe and calm her when she's upset. So try to avoid using strong-smelling toiletries in the early weeks with your newborn.

Your baby actually has many more tastebuds than you, spread across her whole mouth rather than just on her tongue. While you were pregnant, she got a tiny taste of everything you ate, and she'll continue to enjoy the same flavours as you in your breastmilk. She may even show a preference for these foods later in life.

Newborns need a lot of shut-eye. In the first few weeks, your baby may sleep for up to 18 hours over the course of 24 hours, spread out in a series of naps at random times throughout the day and night.

As she starts to learn about the difference between night and day, she'll gradually start to sleep more when it's dark and quiet.

Although a sleeping and feeding routine won't work for your baby until she's around three months old, there's plenty that you can do to encourage good sleep habits during the fourth trimester, such as recognising her sleepy cues and putting her down to sleep before she gets overtired.

Even before she was born, your baby learned to recognise your voice, and perhaps even your partner's. Now that she's surrounded by so much stimulation, she's learning all the time. Her brain is forming connections at an incredible rate, as she discovers more about the world around her.

Take advantage of this amazing capacity for learning by talking, reading and singing to your baby whenever you can. It doesn't matter what you say, as your baby will simply love the sound of your voice. And research suggests that the more words she hears in her first days, weeks and months, the better her language skills are likely to be by the time she starts school.

Exactly how different, and what effect this has on development, is hotly debated.

Research suggests that newborn boys' brains may grow faster than girls' brains in the first three months, particularly in areas that control movement. On the other hand, girls may have more sensitive senses, meaning that they can see and hear better than boys to begin with.

However, the way you care for your baby is likely to have a much bigger effect on their development than whether they're a girl or a boy. And there are plenty of ways to avoid gender-stereotyping your child.