till a baby is born, it breathes the amniotic fluid. why cant it continue to breathe that fluid it for life?


Question:
only when the baby is out of the womb and starts to cry, does it inhale air for the first time which forces all the blood to travel through the lungs, so can the baby be kept in amniotic fluid even after birth before it breathes air? if yes, for how long ? if no, then why?

Answers:
technically, the baby does not breathe the amniotic fluid. It derives oxygen from the mother through the placenta and umbilical cord.
after delivery, the oxygen supply from the mother is lost and the baby needs to derive oxygen from the air, hence the need to breathe air. so no the baby will not survive in amniotic fluid after birth.
Also, studies done have shown that in order to move the same volume of fluid as that of air moved during normal breathing, the amount of energy required would be close to 100 times higher as fluids have a higher viscosity than air. (try blowing a balloon with air and then compare with blowing it with water). That said, experiments on dogs have shown that they can survive in special oxygen enriched hydrocarbons so it is possible to breathe a fluid, except that it would be prohibitively expensive and energy consuming.
lungs are not used for air until minute of birth, they are filled w/ fluid.

second umbilical cord is cut (that is oxygen supply & co2 removal), it must breathe air.

so the answer is no, because of cord.
In theory yes but why would this information be important to anyone to know


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