Care at birth
Skin Care
Immediately after birth, the skin will dry by patting your baby to reduce the loss of heat causes evaporation of amniotic fluid that covered the skin. We also wipe any other substance on the skin, such as blood, feces or coating particular, called "sebaceous coating," which resembles the texture of the cheese. Normally, the remaining coating is absorbed by the skin within 24 to 48 hours.
Body temperature
Before birth, your body temperature controlled baby. After birth, your baby should be able to maintain its body temperature. If body temperature is low, it may have to draw on its reserves of glucose to keep the body warm. This can cause hypoglycemia (low blood sugar), which can cause a further fall in body temperature of your baby. Hypoglycemia can be dangerous for your newborn. To prevent a rapid drop in body temperature, we put your baby in a cradle or hot we leave with you, well wrapped, and monitor body temperature. The skin-on-skin contact with your newborn is another great way to ensure the stability of the body temperature of your baby. We check the temperature regularly. We should not give bath to a newborn until its temperature has stabilized.
Eye Care
During a vaginal delivery, the mother can transmit sexually transmitted diseases such as chlamydia and gonorrhea to her baby. We know that these diseases cause eye problems in newborns. Therefore applied an antibiotic ointment to the eyes, erythromycin, within two hours after birth to prevent eye infections caused by these organisms. The ointment may blur the vision for a short period and can cause irritation in the baby's eyes for 24 to 48 hours.
Vitamin K
Vitamin K is necessary for proper blood clotting. At birth, babies have a temporary shortage of vitamin K. They are given an injection of vitamin K during the first hours of their lives. The injection is given into the thigh muscle of the baby.
In some countries, vitamin K is administered orally: administering a series of doses when the baby feeds. This requires repeated doses is not as reliable as injection. If you intend to circumcise your little boy, it is recommended to administer vitamin K injection as the injection is faster than oral doses, thus allowing to ensure that your baby's blood will coagulate properly during surgery .
Immunization against hepatitis B
Hepatitis B is a virus that infects the liver. Signs and symptoms include jaundice, fatigue, abdominal pain, loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting and joint pain. In the long term, hepatitis B can cause complications such as infections throughout life, scarring of the liver, liver cancer, liver failure and death. Hepatitis B is transmitted through sexual contact, sharing needles, from mother to baby during birth, and mother to the baby during the first months of his life. Ninety percent of babies who are infected at birth develop chronic infection due to hepatitis B.
All newborns who are at risk for hepatitis B should be routinely immunized against hepatitis B shortly after birth. If you have recently been exposed to hepatitis B, particularly during pregnancy, it may be that we administer the vaccine against hepatitis B and another drug, immunoglobulin against hepatitis B, your baby shortly after birth. This can reduce the chances of transmission of the disease to the baby.
Care regarding the umbilical cord
At birth, they pinch and cut the umbilical cord of your newborn. We will remove the clip within 24 to 48 hours. The stump of the umbilical cord attached to your baby's belly button will be blue-white and wet start. However, the stump of umbilical cord dry out and turn black and dry. It will dry quickly if exposed to the air, so there is no need to protect it with a bandage.
Feces and urine
Stakeholders in the health monitor your newborn to ensure that removes dark green stools, tarry texture or meconium in the days following birth. Once you have established a routine for nursing (or drink), stools become yellow-green and grainy texture. If the baby is slow to evacuate the meconium, it may aggravate jaundice and may mean that the baby has a disease.
Newborns should urinate at least once within 24 hours after birth. Once a routine is established for breastfeeding (or drink), your baby should produce four to five layers well filled with urine for each 24-hour period.
Caring for newborns suffering from jaundice
Approximately two thirds of newborns contracting jaundice, a condition characterized by a yellowish skin and eyes. This is due to the accumulation of a chemical called "bilirubin" in the body. Usually, liver and intestines are responsible for eliminating excess bilirubin but many babies have immature liver can not do effectively or the baby defecates frequently enough to remove bilirubin. Usually, jaundice becomes visible to the naked eye two to five days after birth and continues for a few days until the baby's liver is mature enough to properly dispose of bilirubin.
Cases of severe jaundice, especially those that begin within 24 hours after birth, may be due to blood group incompatibility or infection in the newborn.
Signs of severe jaundice, we find the following:
- Skin and eyes show a yellowish tint
- Excessive sleepiness
- Refusal to eat
- Lose more than 10% of birth weight
If your newborn shows signs of jaundice, we will monitor his bilirubin levels with a blood test taken by inserting a needle into the heel. Must control these bilirubin levels because this chemical is dangerous when present in large amounts and can cause deafness or permanent brain injury.
We also use phototherapy to try to dispel the yellowish pigmentation displayed by the skin of your baby. During this treatment, your baby will be placed under a bright light while protecting their eyes with eye patch. When your baby suffers its phototherapy treatment, it can not wear clothing with the exception of a layer. Your baby may need more fluids to stay hydrated, which could be a challenge since most babies with jaundice have no appetite. Usually, we get to control the level of bilirubin in the weeks following the birth. In more severe cases of jaundice, it is possible that we have to make an exchange transfusion, which involves taking blood from the baby several times and replace it with fresh blood from a donor.