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BackgroundGuidelines advise for more than 20 years to use occlusive plastic wraps for temperature management during delivery room care but data on efficacy of different types of wrap are still scarce.MethodsA random sample of seven different types of plastic wrap was tested using prewarmed aluminium blocks.ResultsThe most effective wrap increased the time to cool by 2°C by one-third for the core and by 100% for the surface whereas the least effective wrap led to even faster heat loss compared with no wrap at all. The least effective wrap concerning all capacities tested was made from polyurethane that contains potentially toxic and narcotic monomers. Heat and water retention did not correlate to wrap thickness.DiscussionLarge differences in heat and water retention capacity warrant a careful choice of the type of wrap as some might be counterproductive. Wraps containing polyurethane should not be used.

Objective To assess feasibility, safety, usability and learnability of delivery room care and resuscitation with intact placental circulation (RIPC) at mother's bedside. Materials and methods We included neonates ≥24 weeks GA after parental consent. Both in vigorous and babies requiring resuscitation, appropriate steps of resuscitation were provided with intact cord till 3 min using RIPC warmer. Outcomes were assessed by set criteria and standard system usability scale. Results Of 380 enrolled, intervention was feasible in 376 babies (98.9%). Safety criteria were met in all 376 babies received onto the trolley (100%). Median GA was 38 (37-39) weeks and median BW 2740 (2330-3120) g. Of 376, 92 required resuscitation; 90 (97.8%) PPV, 49 (53.2%) intubations and 13 (14.1%) chest compressions. System Usability Score rated >68 (good) in 90% and 52-68 (fair) in 10%. Temperature at 5 min was 36.5 ± 0.1. Conclusions Delivery room care and neonatal RIPC is feasible and safe across gestations.

Premature infants born after less than 25 weeks’ gestation are particularly vulnerable at birth and stabilization in the delivery room (DR) is challenging. After birth, infants born after

In October 2019, the British Association of Perinatal Medicine (BAPM) published a Framework1 and associated infographic2 for ‘Practice on Perinatal Management of Extreme Preterm Birth Before 27 Weeks of Gestation’. This outlined an approach, based on data from the UK and abroad, to assist clinicians in decision-making relating to perinatal care at ≤26+6 weeks gestation. Many frontline providers of delivery room care of extremely preterm infants will have completed a Resuscitation Council UK (RCUK) Newborn Life Support or Advanced Resuscitation of the Newborn Infant course. This RCUK response to the BAPM Framework highlights how this might impact on their approach.

Describe the characteristics and content of intrapartum counseling provided to women hospitalized for premature birth between 23 and 34 weeks' gestation age (GA). The study was conducted between April and December 2009 in two teaching hospitals with labor and delivery units and level 3 neonatal intensive care units. Counselors completed a postcounseling survey. From 60 sessions, 46 surveys were collected. The median counseling duration was 30 minutes; this was not associated with gestational age. The support-person was not present for most (57%) counseling sessions. There was a positive correlation (p = 0.001) between the number of maternal questions and her education. There was no difference in counseling content across the 23 to 34 weeks' GA regarding delivery room care, physical/mental disability, and vision problems. This study of characteristics and content of premature birth counseling for birth between 23 and 34 weeks' GA found that the duration of most sessions is 30 minutes; the father of the baby is not present during counseling for most premature births, and the topics discussed by counselors are fairly similar and extensive irrespective of the GA. These findings highlight the existing contrast between the recommended counseling practices and the actual practice reported by counselors.

Precise characterization of cardiac anatomy and physiology through fetal echocardiography can predict early postnatal clinical course. Some neonates with prenatally defined critical congenital heart disease have anticipated precipitous compromise during perinatal transition for which specialized, diagnosis-specific delivery room care can be arranged to expeditiously stabilize cardiopulmonary hemodynamics. In this article, we describe our institutional approach to the delivery room care of neonates with prenatally diagnosed congenital heart disease, emphasizing our diagnosis-specific care pathways for newborns with critical disease.

Background The inefficiency of recording data repeatedly limits the number of studies conducted. Here we illustrate the wider use of data captured as part of the European eNewborn benchmarking programme. Methods We extracted data on 39,529 live-births from 22 weeks 0 days to 31 weeks 6 days gestational age (GA) or ≤1500 g birth weight. We explored relationships between delivery room care and Apgar scores on mortality and bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) and calculated the time needed for each country to detect a clinically relevant change in these outcomes following a hypothetical intervention. Results Early neonatal, neonatal, and in-hospital mortality were 3.90% (95% CI 3.71, 4.09), 6.00% (5.77, 6.24) and 7.57% (7.31, 7.83), respectively. The odds of death were greater with decreasing GA, lower Apgar scores, growth restriction, male sex, multiple birth and no antenatal steroids. Relationships for BPD were similar. The time required for participating countries to achieve 80% power to detect a relevant change in outcomes following a hypothetical intervention in 23–25 weeks’ GA infants ranged from 12 years for neonatal mortality and 22 years for BPD compared to 1 year for the whole network. Conclusions The eNewborn platform offers opportunity to drive efficiencies in benchmarking, quality control and research.

The following guideline is designed to give recommendations for the routine care of all neonates immediately after delivery, and the resuscitation and delivery room approach of all high-risk infants in light of recent literature. The guideline has been prepared as three different parts. The first part is about routine procedures that have to be performed to all healthy term and preterm infants in delivery room care. The second part summaries the basic principles of resusucitation including the latest changes that were mentioned in the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation (ILCOR)-2015 guideline. Recommendations about the delivery room management of rare clinical conditions have been discussed in the last part. The social, medical conditions, and the resourses of Turkey have also been taken into consideration in its preparation. We hope it will be useful for all pediatricians and neonatologists for use as a essential guideline in delivery room care.

This clinical scenario-based review will discuss how telehealth programs improve access to specialty care for neonates, their caregivers, and primary care pediatricians. Tele-resuscitation supports pediatricians during complex, high-risk newborn resuscitations, improves the quality of delivery room care, and reduces odds of transfer to a higher level of care. Neonatologists and other pediatric specialists use telehealth to provide more effective consultations that positively influence management decisions and patient outcomes. When neonatologists provide video visits to home and meet virtually with primary care pediatricians, infants discharged from the NICU experience fewer emergency room visits and hospital re-admissions. With further implementation and dissemination of neonatal telemedicine programs, it is important that these programs continue to be thoughtfully designed to achieve measurable value that is relevant to patients and caregivers, providers, healthcare systems, and payers.

Stabilisation and resuscitation in the delivery room is an integral part of the care of extremely premature newborns. The main task is to support essential life functions and to facilitate the adaptation of the immature organism to the extrauterine life. The current recommendations are well defined for the full term and late preterm newborns, but there is a lack of targeted recommendations for the stabilisation and resuscitation of extremely premature newborns. The research part of the submitted thesis summarises the most important results of clinical research performed in 2010-2015 at the Department of Neonatology of the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, VFN and First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University in Prague. The research evaluates the efficacy and side effects of the currently recommended methods of stabilisation and resuscitation of extremely premature neonates in the delivery room and presents some new and potentially useful techniques for delivery room care. A significant output of this work is the recommendation for practice, structured according to the gestational age of extremely premature newborns. The proposed guideline is based on our results of partial clinical trials and aims to improve the current level of stabilisation and resuscitation of extremely premature newborns...

Contains fulltext : 177240.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access) Prenatal counseling practices at the limits of viability do vary, and constructing a counseling framework based on guidelines, professional and parental preferences, might achieve more homogeneity. We aimed to gain insight into professionals' preferences on three domains of counseling, particularly content, organization, and decision making and their influencing factors. A qualitative, nationwide in-depth exploration among Dutch perinatal professionals by semi-structured interviews in focus groups was performed. Regarding content of prenatal counseling, preparing parents on the short-term situation (delivery room care) and revealing their perspectives on "quality of life" were considered important. Parents should be informed on the kind of decision, on the difficulty of individual outcome predictions, on survival and mortality figures, short- and long-term morbidity, and the burden of hospitalization. For organization, the making of and compliance with agreements between professionals may promote joint counseling by neonatologists and obstetricians. Supportive materials were considered useful but only when up-to-date, in addition to the discussion and with opportunity for personalization. Regarding decision making, it is not always clear to parents that a prenatal decision needs to be made and they can participate, influencing factors could be, e.g., unclear language, directive counseling, overload of information, and an immediate delivery. There is limited familiarity with shared decision making although it is the preferred model. CONCLUSION: This study gained insight into preferred content, organization, and decision making of prenatal counseling at the limits of viability and their influencing factors from a professionals' perspective. What is Known: * Heterogeneity in prenatal counseling at the limits of viability exists * Differences between preferred counseling and actual practice also exists What is New: * Insight into preferred content, organization, and decision making of prenatal periviability counseling and its influencing factors from a professionals' perspective. Results should be taken into account when performing counseling. * Particularly the understanding of true shared decision making needs to be improved. Furthermore, implementation of shared decision making in daily practice needs more attention.

For more than half a century neonatologists and ethicists alike have struggled with ethical dilemmas surrounding infants born at the limits of viability. Both doctors and parents face difficult decisions. Do we try to save these babies, knowing that such efforts are likely to be unsuccessful? Or do we provide only comfort care, knowing that, in doing so, you will inevitably allow some babies to die who might have been saved? In this paper, we review the outcome data on these babies and offer ten suggestions for doctors: (1) accept that there is a 'gray zone' during which decisions are not black and white; (2) do not place too much emphasis on gestational age; (3) dying is generally not in an infant's best interest; (4) impairment does not necessarily equal poor quality of life; (5) just because the train has left the station doesn't mean you can't get off; (6) respect powerful emotions; (7) be aware of the self-fulfilling prophecies; (8) time lag likely skews all outcome data; (9) statistics can be both confused and confusing; (10) never abandon parents.

The first hour of a newborn’s life is fraught with difficulty. Recommendations regarding the fundamental issues of resuscitation of these infants are developed and disseminated by the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation and other organizations. However, these recommendations frequently do not address the needs of the very low birth weight infant and do not address some of the nuances that might lead to improved outcome. Improved organization and teamwork as well as improved monitoring and respiratory support can potentially improve the outcome of these infants.

Fetal life evolves in a low oxygen milieu as compared to the extra-uterine. In the fetal to neonatal transition rapid changes in the oxygen content of the newly born infant occur within a brief period of time. Delivery room care givers should be aware of the slow transition regarding oxygenation, and supply oxygen as needed trying to avoid damage caused by hyper-and-hypoxia. In this regard, titrating oxygen inspiratory fraction against oxygen saturation as measured by pulse oximetry following recent nomogram ranges is a valid method.

Advances in perinatal care have been accompanied by improved survival among infants born in the middle to late second trimester, who were previously considered nonviable. This development has led to the spurious assumption that life can be sustained in live-born infants irrespective of gestational age or birth weight. Since pessimism prevails in the few reports on later outcomes among these very small and immature infants, the indiscriminate initiation of intensive care raises many philosophical, ethical, and economic questions.1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Despite many reviews with titles such as "How Small Is Too Small?,"11 "What Is the Lower Limit of Viability?,"12 and "Where and . . .

Neonatal survival of very low birth weight (VLBW) infants (600-999 grams) and long-term outcome of low birth weight (LBW) infants (600-1499 grams) are correlated with optimal delivery room (DR) management. Over a 4-year period, 335 LBW infants were born alive at UCHSC. Of these, 108 were VLBW. Intrapartum and resuscitation management were reviewed and rated. "Optimal delivery care" was defined as appropriate intrapartum care and a controlled, uncomplicated delivery. "Optimal resuscitation" required that a team be present at delivery and encounter no technical problems. Optimal delivery room (DR) management occurred when both obstetric and pediatric care were appropriate. Adequate information was available to rate 80% of cases. Survival of VLBW infants was significantly improved with optimal DR care (p < 0.05). DR care had the greatest impact on 700-999 grams infants. In this group, 68% of survivors had "optimal care" while only 31% of the neonatal deaths (ND) had "optimal care" (p < 0.01). Neonatal deaths also occurred later with optimal DR care (p < 0.02). Unavoidable obstetrical complications occurred in 14 deliveries of VLBW infants (11 ND and 3 survivors) (p < 0.05). All of the survivors had optimal resuscitation. Only 1 of the 3 survivors was normal at follow-up. Vaginal breech delivery of LBW infants had a significant neonatal mortality compared to vertex vaginal delivery (p < 0.01) or breech C-section delivery (p < 0.02). Optimal DR management was also associated with normal long-term outcome for LBW infants. Fifty percent with optimal DR care and 30% without were normal at follow-up (p < 0.05). With improvement in Newborn Intensive Care, the effects of intrapartum and delivery room management can now be measured in both neonatal survival and long-term outcome. These findings have special significance for level I hospitals who transport LBW infants after delivery and stabilization.