Care of the Newborn 1 Assessment for Well-Being. Assessment of the newborn immediately starts... 2 Care of the Newborn at Birth. Newborn care is immediately done after birth in a separate space... 3 Care of the Newborn in the Postpartum Period. 4 Practice Quiz: Care of the Newborn. Accomplish this 5-item quiz about caring for the newborn!
Care of the Newborn at Birth. An identification band is placed around the newborn’s arm or leg which contains the mother ’s hospital number, the mother’s full name, sex, date, and time of infant’s birth. The newborn’s footprints are then taken and kept for permanent identification.
Newborn care varies among cultures and in some areas in the world. During the initial feeding, a term newborn could be fed immediately after birth while a formula-fed one should be fed at 2 to 4 hours of age. Bathing is done an hour after birth to gently wash away the vernix caseosa, and this is done daily.
There are five criteria to evaluate the newborn: chest movement, intercostals retraction, xiphoid retraction, nares dilatation, and expiratory grunt. The highest score for each criterion is 2, and the lowest is 0.
0-3 points: the baby is serious danger and need immediate resuscitation. 4-6 points: the baby’s condition is guarded and may need more extensive clearing of the airway and supplementary oxygen. 7-10 points: are considered good and in the best possible health.
The birth registration of the infant is taken care of by the physician or nurse-midwife who supervised in the delivery. The mother’s name, the father’s name, and the infant’s name and birthdate, as well as the place, are recorded.
The newborn’s height and weight can determine their maturity and establish baseline data of their height and weight. The newborn is weighed daily at exactly the same time to note any abnormal weight loss or gain. Some of the laboratory tests performed for newborns is the heel-stick test for blood studies.
There are five criteria to evaluate the newborn: chest movement, intercostals retraction , xiphoid retraction , nares dilatation , and expiratory grunt.
Newborn identification and registration is an important step after the immediate newborn care to avoid switching of babies or kidnapping in the healthcare facility.
Newborn care is immediately done after birth in a separate space near the birthing area. Equipment such as radiant heat table, warm blankets, resuscitation, eye care, suction, weighing scale and equipment for oxygen administration are already prepared and ready to use.
Assessment of the newborn immediately starts the moment he or she is delivered, and there are a lot of standard assessments used to evaluate them rapidly.