12.1 Healthy Newborn Care
Learning Objectives
- Apply concepts of physical and psychosocial needs pertaining to a healthy newborn
- Identify appropriate nursing and medical care for the healthy newborn
- Identify common complications of a healthy newborn and related nursing interventions
- Determine teaching concepts related to newborn care, including identification of community resources
- Describe pharmacological and nonpharmacological therapeutic interventions used with the newborn client
- Determine assessment data for a healthy newborn client, including labs and diagnostics
- Identify factors influencing a family’s individual choices regarding newborn care, such as culture, values, and religion
Nurses provide newborn care immediately after childbirth and during the immediate postpartum period in the hospital. According to the World Health Organization, essential newborn care includes the following components[1]:
- Immediate care after birth (Thermal care, assessment, initiation of skin-to-skin contact and breastfeeding, and resuscitation when needed)
- Health teaching about breastfeeding and infant care
- Infection prevention
- Routine assessment of health and recognition and response to danger signs
- Timely and safe referral as needed
This chapter will describe physical changes of the newborn after birth, common complications during the neonatal period, psychosocial needs of a healthy newborn, and congenital conditions. The nursing process will be applied to newborn care, including assessments, laboratory and diagnostic testing, common medical and nursing interventions, and health teaching topics.
- World Health Organization. (n.d.) Essential newborn care. https://www.who.int/teams/maternal-newborn-child-adolescent-health-and-ageing/newborn-health/essential-newborn-care ↵