Reflexes in newborn babies [MUSIC PLAYING] [BABY CRYING] NARRATOR: All full-term newborn babies are born with some natural reflexes, including sucking, walking, holding, and the startle or Moro reflex. If all these reflexes are present, the parents can be reassured that their baby's development is normal. This will not be the same in premature babies, as they still have some way to go. Following the birth of the baby, the midwife or pediatrician will check for these reflexes. Victoria's newborn, Esme, is being checked out by her midwife, Andrea. And she shows how her legs already know how to move in a walking motion. Consultant neonatologist Ryan Watkins is checking over three-day-old baby Tamami. RYAN WATKINS: So you can see her legs are flexed and moving normally. And her arms are slightly flexed as well. It's a bit unfair to expect this one to flex too much given the weight of Tamami. And you can see she's a newborn baby. Her central tone is low, so she arches over my hand. With a baby who is a month or two old, you'd expect that to be straighter and her trying to lift her head. What I'm going to do then is just check her Moro reflex. Let's do this. I just drop her backwards into the palm of my hands. It appears a little bit startling, and the startle reflex is another word for it. Whee! So you can see her fling her arms out to the side and open her eyes and then they return to the normal position. If I open her hand up, place my pad of my thumb in the palm of her hand, I should find she grips my fingers. The same thing will happen on her feet. See her flexing her toes there. [BABY CRYING] Going to check her reflex on this foot too. She's very alert just now, isn't she? Yeah. NARRATOR: These reflexes will disappear over time as the baby develops and becomes stronger.