| Term | Description |
| neonate | the term used for newborns |
| epistomy | an incision sometimes made to increase the size of the vagina to allow the baby to pass |
| Apgar Scale | standard measurement system that looks for a variety of indications of good health in newborns |
| anoxia | a restriction on oxygen to the baby, lasting a few minutes during the birth process, which can produce brain damage |
| bonding | close physical and emotional contact between parent and child during the period immediately following birth, argued by some to affect later relationship strength |
| preterm infants | infants who are born prior to 38 weeks after conception (also known as premature infants) |
| low-birthweight infants | infants who weigh less than 2,500 grams (around 5.5 lbs) |
| small-for-gestational-age infants | infants who, because of delayed fetal growth, weigh 90% (or less) of the average weight of infants of the same gestational age |
| very-low-birthweight infants | infants who weigh less that 1,250 grams (around 2.25 lbs) or, regardless of weigh, have been in the womb less than 30 weeks |
| age of viability | the point at which an infant can survive a premature birth |
| still birth | the delivery of a child who is not alive, occuring in less than 1 delivery in 100 |
| infant mortality | death within the first year of life |
| cesarean delivery | a birth in which the baby is surgically removed from the uterus, rather than traveling through the birth canal |
| fetal monitor | a device that measures the baby's heartbeat during labor |
| reflexes | unlearned, organized involuntary responses that occurs automatically in the presence of certain stimuli |
| classical conditioning | a type of learning in which an organism responds in a particular way to a neutral stimulus that normally does not bring about that type of response |
| operant conditioning | a form of learning in which a voluntary response is strengthened or weakened, depending on its associaion with positive or negative consequences |
| habituation | the decrease in the response to a stimulus that occures after repeated presentations of the same stimulus |
| states of arousal | different degrees of sleep and wakefulness through which newborns cycle, ranging from deep sleep to great agitation |