Antes de deitar o bebé, a mãe aquece o leite e enche o biberão.

Because antes de is a fixed expression meaning before when it is followed by a verb.

• antes de + infinitive = before doing something
• antes de deitar o bebé = before putting the baby to bed

Compare:

• Antes de sair, fecha a porta. = Before leaving, close the door.
• Antes do jantar = Before dinner

So:

• antes de + verb
• antes de + noun can also happen, but then it may contract: antes do jantar, antes da aula

After antes de, Portuguese normally uses the infinitive.

So:

• antes de deitar o bebé
• not antes de deita o bebé

This is very similar to English before putting the baby to bed.

Other examples:

• antes de comer = before eating
• antes de dormir = before sleeping
• antes de sair de casa = before leaving home

Here, deitar o bebé means to lay the baby down / put the baby to bed.

The verb deitar basically means to lay down or to put to bed, depending on context.

Important distinctions:

• deitar o bebé = to put the baby down / to put the baby to bed
• deitar-se = to lie down / to go to bed oneself
• dormir = to sleep

So:

• A mãe deita o bebé. = The mother puts the baby to bed.
• A mãe deita-se. = The mother goes to bed.
• O bebé dorme. = The baby sleeps.

In this sentence, the idea is not that the baby is already sleeping, but that the mother is preparing to put the baby to bed.

Portuguese uses definite articles much more often than English.

So where English might say:

• Mother warms the milk and fills the bottle

Portuguese normally says:

• a mãe aquece o leite e enche o biberão

This sounds natural in Portuguese because the speaker is referring to specific, known things in the situation:

• the mother
• the milk
• the bottle
• the baby

English often leaves these articles out in a general context, but Portuguese usually keeps them.

These are the 3rd person singular present tense forms of the verbs:

• aquecer = to warm / heat
• encher = to fill

Since the subject is a mãe, the verb must match it:

• a mãe aquece
• a mãe enche

This present tense can describe:

1. a habitual action

   • Before putting the baby to bed, the mother warms the milk and fills the bottle.

2. a present-time sequence in narration

   • It can also sound like a simple description of what happens.

So this is a very normal use of the present tense in Portuguese.

Because Portuguese often leaves out subject pronouns when the verb ending already shows who the subject is.

Here the subject is explicitly stated as a mãe, so there is no need to add ela.

• a mãe aquece o leite e enche o biberão

Adding ela would usually be unnecessary unless you wanted extra emphasis or contrast.

Portuguese is much more comfortable than English with leaving subjects unstated or not repeating them.

Biberão is the European Portuguese word for a baby bottle.

In Brazilian Portuguese, the usual word is:

• mamadeira

So:

• Portugal: biberão
• Brazil: mamadeira

If you are learning Portuguese from Portugal, biberão is the correct everyday word.

The part Antes de deitar o bebé is an introductory time expression: it sets the scene for when the main action happens.

So the sentence is divided like this:

• Antes de deitar o bebé, = Before putting the baby to bed,
• a mãe aquece o leite e enche o biberão. = the mother warms the milk and fills the bottle.

This comma is very natural and helps readability. It works much like English punctuation in sentences such as:

• Before going out, she checks the door.

Yes. Deitar can mean to lay down in a general sense, and context decides the exact meaning.

But in this sentence, because the mother is warming milk and filling a bottle first, the most natural interpretation is before putting the baby to bed.

If you wanted to make bedtime even clearer, Portuguese could also say something like:

• Antes de pôr o bebé na cama...
• Antes de deitar o bebé para dormir...

Still, deitar o bebé already sounds very natural for put the baby to bed.

The meaning is the same: baby.

The difference is spelling and pronunciation conventions:

• European Portuguese: bebé
• Brazilian Portuguese: bebê

So for Portuguese from Portugal, bebé is the correct form.

You may also notice pronunciation differences in real speech, but for writing, this is the main thing to remember.

The structure is:

• Antes de deitar o bebé = time phrase
• a mãe = subject
• aquece o leite = first verb phrase
• e enche o biberão = second verb phrase

So literally:

• Before putting the baby to bed, the mother warms the milk and fills the bottle.

This order is very normal in Portuguese. The sentence begins with the time context, then gives the main subject and actions.

Yes. Aquecer is the normal verb for to warm or to heat.

• aquecer o leite = to warm the milk

Depending on context, it can mean warming it gently or heating it more generally. In everyday family contexts, aquecer o leite is exactly what you would expect.

Other examples:

• aquecer a sopa = warm the soup
• aquecer a comida = heat the food

Yes, grammatically that is possible. A more literal gloss would be:

• Antes de deitar o bebé = Before laying the baby down

But in natural English, with this context, before putting the baby to bed is usually the best translation.

So there is a difference between:

• literal form: before laying the baby down
• natural meaning: before putting the baby to bed

That kind of small shift is very common when translating between Portuguese and English.