THE EFFECTS OF MEDICALLY-ORIENTATED LABOR WARD ROUTINES ON PREFEEDINGBEHAVIOR AND BODY-TEMPERATURE IN NEWBORN-INFANTS

The effects of medically-orientated labour ward routines were studied during the first hour after birth, in 48 vaginal, single deliveries. A ll infants were immediately separated from their mothers and left on a resuscitation table. There was no significant difference in onset of crying if the infant received cutaneous stimulation or not. It was fou nd that 17 infants, not showing hand-to-mouth activity, were bathed at an average time of 17 min (12-23 min) after birth, while those who di d were bathed at 28.5 (24.5-41.5) min (P=0.002). One infant was breast fed during the first hour. Being separated from its mother, bathed ear ly, and swaddled after birth seemed to interfere with the infant's inb orn ability to signal hunger. Forty-one infants were hypothermic at 1 hour. According to a multiple regression analysis infant body temperat ure at 60 min of age corresponded positively with birthweight (P=0.000 1) and time of oxygen administration (P= 0.0002). A plausible explanat ion for the effect of oxygen exposure is that there is brown fat inact ivation in normal newborn infants and administration of oxygen activat es the brown fat, It might be advantageous to let the mother keep the baby warm, rather than manipulate the baby's metabolism with oxygen.