Your newborn baby will receive a considerable amount of health care immediately after birth and in the first few days of life.
His skin will be patted dry to minimize any heat loss caused by evaporation of amniotic fluid. He will be kept warm and his
temperature will be checked regularly.
Your newborn baby will be given an antibiotic eye ointment called erythromycin within two hours after birth to prevent eye
infections. He will receive an injection of vitamin K to ensure proper clotting of the blood. If your newborn baby is high
risk for hepatitis B, he will be immunized against this disease. His stool and urine output will be monitored. If he shows
signs of jaundice, he will be monitored and treated accordingly.
Assessments and screening tests
Your newborn baby will go through a number of assessments when he is first born, to make sure that he is in good health. His
first assessments, called the Apgar score, occur when he is just one minute and five minutes old. This assessment is a scoring
system that assesses newborn babies’ well-being using five different factors: heart rate, breathing, muscle tone, reflexes,
and skin colour.
Your newborn baby’s health care provider will also check his height, weight, head circumference, and umbilical cord. The health
care provider will give your newborn baby a physical examination and conduct screening tests for hearing and various genetic
disorders.
Screening tests are done shortly after birth to detect important metabolic diseases. Once detected, these diseases can be
treated, and hopefully complications can be prevented. In many countries, hearing screening is offered in hospitals and community
centres to all newborn babies to ensure they hear well.
