A Baby Period

I'm on call tonight, and I got an anxious page from first-time parents of a five-day-old baby girl.  They had noticed some slight bleeding from her vaginal area, and the mom said she had broken down into tears when she saw the blood.  I quickly reassured her that this bleeding is not uncommon in newborn girls.  The baby is just responding to hormonal changes as she adapts to life outside the womb, just as mom's hormones are also fluctuating wildly in her postpartum state.  The falling levels of maternal hormones in the baby's bloodstream affects the uterus and creates the "baby period."  But at 10 PM at night, in her sleep-deprived state with her C-section wound still hurting, all the mother heard was that the bleeding was normal.  Her relief was palpable even over the phone.  I hope she can get a few hours of rest now.