Author: Carma Haley Shoemaker
Published on: November 29, 2001

Katie from Southern California asks, “How do dolphins have babies?”
Katie has offered a wonderful question. In fact, this is one question I have received numerous times. So, this is for all of you who asked about dolphin babies.

In order to understand how dolphins have babies, we need to talk a little about how a dolphin breathes. This is a very important event in the life of a newborn dolphin, so we need to understand how this works.

Dolphins spend their lives submerged in water. However, just as we do, they need air – or oxygen – to breath. When a dolphin needs to take a breath, it comes to the surface of the water and takes in air through its “blowhole.”

The dolphins “blowhole” is an opening on the back of the head that looks like a small mouth. It opens and closes, and often times a mist of water can be seen shooting from it. This blowhole is the dolphin’s way of breathing. The mist is simply the water on the dolphin’s skin being blown away as the dolphin exhales before taking another breath. Once the dolphin takes a breath, the blowhole closes – so no water can get in the dolphins lungs – and it swims and dives just as always.

So, the question is, how do dolphins have babies. If they live in the water, but need air to breath, how do they have babies?

A dolphin mother carries her baby in her womb, or belly, just as a human mother does. And when its time, the dolphin mother will begin labor – the act of having her baby. Labor and delivery of a newborn dolphin usually takes very little time, with the baby being born in only one to two hours. During labor, the dolphin mother will “float” in the water, only moving or swimming to the surface from time to time to get air. Once the baby is born, the dolphin mother quickly swims under it, uses her snout to carry or push her new baby to the surface where it will take its first breath. If a baby dolphin doesn’t breath right away – and this happens from time to time, as the babies may not know how to use their blowhole – the mother dolphin will gently push or tap on the baby’s stomach, throat, and chest to stimulate the baby to take a breath. The baby dolphin then begins to breath, swim, feed (from its mother of course, as it is just a baby), and play, learning from watching its mother and the other members of the pod.

Dolphins grow and mature very rapidly and are born with certain senses of what to do, such as swim, without anyone teaching them. But, just as humans, dolphin babies need love, guidance, and teaching in order to learn all the skills they need to survive, and one day, have babies of their own.

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