Making Babies: Checks after birth

Um, jaundice is a text that's come in from a listener.

Yeah.

Um, can, just listener says that their, their newborn baby of three weeks ago, um, was diagnosed-

Yeah

... following a midwife check to the house.

Yeah.

Uh, how concerned should they be or what do they need to do?

Well, they'll do a blood test to see what the serum bilirubin is, and then the baby might need, um, some phototherapy, which is, um... [stutters] A part of it is, you know, physiological.

Babies can become jaundiced after they're born, um, and that's all in part and parcel of the newborn period.

But then there are other reasons.

Well, what's actually? Just so what's, what's actually happening when the baby has that?

So it's building up something called bilirubin in its circulation, which can be dangerous for the baby, but it only at very, very high levels.

And there are many reasons why it would do that.

You can get jaundice of prematurity.

Uh, you can get jaundice related to antibody, uh, attacks on the, uh, on, on the baby's, uh, blood cells.

So they have to try and establish a reason and then treat the baby.

And the commonest treatment, if there is one required, i- if it's above a certain threshold, is baby goes under phototherapy to try and break down the bilirubin.

And that's really all that's required.

So I wouldn't be concerned about it, but there should be a serum bilirubin level done, referred back to the unit to see whether the baby needs any, uh, phototherapy treatment or not.