Why is a newborn’s skull not completely closed?

Answer

Dear Bayram,

There are several reasons for this. The skull of a newborn baby is not fully grown to begin with. The skull will continue to grow and slowly the bones will grow together. In newborns and toddlers/preschoolers, the bones are still in full growth and will only slowly convert from soft to hard bones. A toddler will also rarely really be able to break a leg like an adult; they then speak of a greenwood fracture, just as a twig of a young tree does not break like a full-grown branch, but rather bends.

Before the birth itself, the loose skull bones serve to allow passage through the vagina. If the bones were already together and the skull incompressible, most children would not be able to be born through the vagina. The bones of the skull are pushed over each other during the expulsion, so that the circumference of the skull becomes smaller, small enough to be able to pass. After birth, the skull bones will slide next to each other again. The brain can handle the extra pressure of the compressed skull quite well. Should the size of the skull still be too large to pass through the vagina, this will normally be detected in time during delivery (due to the head not descending or due to the baby’s heart rate falling too much) and to perform a cesarean section.

Kind regards,