Optimum interventions have so far been unclear, partly because of lack of consistency in measuring infants’ temperatures. Maintaining a near normal temperature is important for survival and is a worldwide issue across all climates because of the link to a variety of complications including brain injury and bleeding into the lung. Newborn babies, particularly pre-term infants, rely on external help to maintain their temperature, particularly in the first 12 hours of life. The UK National Neonatal Audit Programme highlighted hypothermia as a concern, after it found 25% of infants born at less than 32 weeks gestation in this country had a recorded temperature below the recommended range in 2016. Hypothermia immediately after birth remains a worldwide problem, in both resource-rich and poorer countries.
Despite this, about a quarter of babies born eight weeks early have temperatures that are too low and additional measures to warm pre-term and low birth weight infants are needed.Īlthough babies were warmer after the intervention, this review of 19 published studies did not show that these interventions improved survival, or reduced the chances of short or long-term conditions associated with cold, perhaps because of the size of the trials. Routine infant care usually involves ensuring the delivery room is warm, drying the infant immediately after birth, wrapping the infant in pre-warmed dry blankets and pre-warming surfaces. Pre-term infants are most likely to benefit. Infants treated in this way are likely to be warmer when admitted to neonatal intensive care than those treated according to standard care. Cheap and simple plastic wrapping used in the first 10 minutes after birth helps pre-term and low birth weight infants avoid hypothermia.
0 kommentar(er)
