Doctors take extra care to keep babies snug

CHANDIGARH: Worried over the dipping mercury levels, physicians in city hospitals are taking special care of newborns to protect the tender hearts from developing life-threatening hypothermia.
‘Extra care" is being taken to ensure that a newborn is handled properly and shifted to temperature-regulated nurseries to protect them from cold injuries.
Speaking to The Times of India, a senior UT health department paediatrician says: "Hypothermia occurs when newborn"s temperature drops below 36.5 degree Celsius (97.7 F).When the temperature is between 36-36.5 C (96.8-97.7 F), it is mild hypothermia, between 32-36 C (89.6-96.8 F) it is moderate hypothermia and less than 32 C (89.6 F) it is severe hypothermia.
Hypothermic newborns must be rewarmed as quickly as possible by skin-to-skin contact or by other suitable methods depending on the severity of hypothermia." Says a PGI faculty member: "A newborn regulates body temperature much less efficiently than an adult and loses heat more easily. Premature and low birth weight babies are more at risk. After birth, a wet newborn immediately starts losing heat and unless it is prevented, hypothermia develops.
This increases the risk of illness and death." Physicians say that in increasing the risk of hypothermia, environmental conditions during delivery and the postnatal period have a significant role to play.
"Newborns need a much warmer environment. Smaller the newborn, the higher the temperature needs to be. We follow certain specific sets of rules to protect the newborns. The room temperature where delivery is done is maintained at around 25 degree C. At birth, a newborn is immediately dried and covered, even before the umbilical cord is cut. While drying, a baby is placed on a warm surface, commonly on the mother"s chest to ensure skin-to-skin contact. If the baby catches cold, alternative means of preventing heat loss and providing warmth, such as wrapping him and putting him in a warm room is necessary," notes the faculty member.
A senior doctor in the General Hospital lays emphasis on breast-feeding. "Unless the mother is sick, breast-feeding is recommended within an hour of delivery. This provides the baby with calories to produce body heat. In the days following birth, hypothermia can be prevented by keeping the baby and mother together, breast-feeding at frequent intervals as per the baby"s wants and dressing the baby appropriately," he says.
Low birth weight or sick newborns are most vulnerable to hypothermia.
Different methods to keep high-risk babies warm include kangaroo-mother care, warm rooms, radiant heaters and incubators. "A newborn baby placed in a warm room is taken out periodically for skin-to-skin contact and for breast feeding. This also helps to monitor the baby"s body temperature," he says.