Immediate Newborn Care: What To Do and Things To Avoid

One of life’s most wondrous experiences is the birth of a child. What happens to the baby after labor can vary significantly depending on the delivery method, how well the delivery of the baby is, and how easily the baby adapts to life outside the womb. Here’s what all parents need to know about immediate newborn care.

Essential Intrapartum and Newborn Care (EINC) or Unang Yakap

In the Philippines, Immediate Newborn Care is also what we call Essential Intrapartum and Newborn or Unang Yakap. 

The newborn’s condition should be monitored immediately after birth. Here are some immediate newborn care tips to ensure the baby’s health and safety during the first hours of their life.

What To Do

Immediately when the baby is delivered, the doctor will get the Apgar Score, a very simple test that is conducted on a newborn in the first to five minutes after being born. The doctor, midwife, or nurse examines the baby’s breathing effort, heart rate, reflexes, skin color, and reflexes.

The 1-minute scoring is calculated to evaluate the birthing operation. The 5-minute score reveals the baby’s well-being outside the mother’s womb. But sometimes, the test will be performed within 10 minutes of birth, depending on the case. 

Then, comes The Unang Yakap, which consists of 4 steps: Immediate Drying, Skin-to-skin Contact, Delayed Cord Clamping and Cutting, and Breastfeeding

Immediate Drying and then Skin-to-Skin Contact

After a standard delivery, you should immediately dry the newborn and proceed with the skin to skin contact. Skin-to-skin contact keeps the baby at a warm temperature and allows you both to bond immediately. It also helps maintain the baby’s cardiac pace and breathing.

This simple act helps reduce newborn crying, trigger breastfeeding, and maintain the baby’s body temperature. After this first touch, the doctor or nurse will bring the baby to the nursery for the following: 

• Anthropometric measurements (Weight, Length and Head circumference)
• Cleaning. The doctor or the assistant (midwife or nurse) will clean the baby for any excess blood or any secretions the baby has
• Physical Examination
• Checking for the patency of the anus
• Appropriate prophylaxis (medicine or vaccine)

Delayed Cord Clamping And Cutting

The doctor doesn’t immediately clamp and cut the umbilical cord. Instead, they allow some time for the blood from the cord and placenta to flow to the baby. 

Breastfeeding

When an infant is breastfed immediately right after birth, they have the best chance of survival, development, and developing their full potential.

Experts believe that mothers should breastfeed babies for the first six months or longer, as soon as possible after delivery. Exclusively breastfeeding right after birth has beneficial effects on a baby’s sensory and cognitive growth, as well as lowering the risk of both infectious and chronic illnesses.

What To Avoid

1. Avoid touching the baby with dirty hands

Immediate newborn care involves good hand hygiene for anyone touching the baby. To reduce infections, they must wash their hands first with soap and water.

Around 28% of the 3 million newborn deaths every year are due to infections.

Most of these infections can be prevented by good handwashing behavior of those around them during the vulnerable neonatal phase.

2. Keep sick people away from the newborn

Babies have undeveloped immune systems, so they are more vulnerable to becoming sick from infectious diseases.

As part of immediate newborn care, people with fever, a cough, sore throat, or a runny nose should avoid visiting the baby in the meantime. Keep in mind that people who had contagious symptoms days earlier may still transmit viruses.

The baby’s well-being is the most important thing, so it is understandable to decline or say no to visitors.

3. Avoid too cool or warm temperatures

Babies cannot regulate their own body temperature. If the baby feels cool, keep his body and head covered and keep him close to the mother’s body skin.

If the baby feels warm, put the baby in the coolest part of the house, loosen the baby’s clothes and wraps, and bathe the baby in lukewarm water. Dry well.

When To Seek Medical Attention

If the baby is weak, not breathing properly after delivery, or has a heart rate of below 100 beats per minute, healthcare professionals should move the baby to the warming station. The doctor or nurse will decide what kind of action to take.

Learn more about baby care, here.