by: Lorenzo
As soon as newborn infants are retrieve from the womb, they are examined by a pediatrician or by the obsetrician at birth. The exam that they utilize examines the heart and lung, as well as examining any trauma sustained during birth such as possible collar bone fractures, and possible congenital conditions. The information that is taken into consideration is the child’s birth weight, length, and head circumference, gestational age, history of previous pregnancies, as well as medical history of the mother.
Essential in newborn exam is the APGAR Score, this score is a way to assess newborns quickly and detect the need for intervention to help establish breathing. The APGAR score is recorded at about 1 and 5 minutes after birth. This testing can be used to detect decreased respiration and evaluate the newborn’s response to resuscitation efforts. In normal cases, a 5 minute APGAR score of about 7 to 10 is observed and a score of 4 -6 is considered intermediate. However, if in case there is a score of 0-3, this is considered low, and thus may indicate possible neurological conditions such as cerebral palsy.
The Newborn Nursery exam is conducted when the newborn is in the nursery. The physician listens to the heart and lungs using a stethoscope and palpates the abdomen to feel for abnormalities. The pediatrician then examines the skin to detect any bruising, broken blood vessels, swelling, dryness, pallor or cyanosis. Other parts of the body that are studied are the head, face, eyes, nose, ears, mouth, neck, chest, abdomen, genitals, and bones. The physician also conducts a neurological exam, most importantly the infant’s movements, muscle tone and assess the crying, which can be high pitched). Reflexes are also taken into consideration and the following reflexes are tested: the sucking reflex, which is a response to placing a nipple or finger in the newborn’s mouth. The second reflex is the rooting reflex, the infant turns his or her head to the side in response to a light touch on the cheek. Other reflexes traction, palmar grasp reflex, placing reflex, moro reflex, tonic neck reflex.
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