A baby in Brazil has stunned many around the world after she appeared to start walking minutes after being born.
According to the Mirror, doctors were trying to bathe her, but she had other ideas and started to wriggle around to walk on her own.
Normally, babies don’t start walking until they are about 12 months old. It is believed the footage was shot at Santa Cruz Hospital in Rio Grande do Sul, southern Brazil.
One of the people in the hospital said: “Wow, she is so cute it’s amazing. If she’s like this now, I can just imagine how precocious she is going to be as she grows up.”
To which the midwife holding the baby girl says: “Heavens above. If you told people what has just happened, no one would believe it unless they saw it with their own eyes.”
For the midwife, it is particularly surprising to hear this as it is not that uncommon in newborn babies – it’s actually something they often show naturally.
Known as the walking or stepping reflex, ‘if you hold the baby under the arms (being careful to support her head, as well) and let her soles touch a flat surface, she’ll place one foot in front of the other and “walk”,’ Healthy Children writes.
“This reflex will disappear after two months, then reoccur as she learned voluntary behaviour of walking toward the end of the first year.”
