INTRODUCTION: Newborn cries exhibit a richness of melody and rhythmicity, yet their rhythmic features have been less studied. METHODS: In this study, we analyzed the amplitude modulation of 1,884 cries from 30 Chinese newborns. RESULTS: The group-averaged amplitude modulation spectrum revealed an evident increase in energy between 0.5 and 8 Hz, peaking around 2 Hz. The peak frequency for individual child averaged at around 3 Hz (SD = 1.3 Hz), with the majority of which lied below 5 Hz. CONCLUSION: This study is the first to demonstrate that newborn cries contain increased energy in slower-rate amplitude modulation frequencies associated with prosodic feet and syllabic rhythms in speech, underscoring the important role of rhythmic information in early language acquisition.