Hospital care of normal newborn infants: safety and health promotion

Key words: Newborn infants, Safety, Skin-to-skin contact, Neonatal collapse, Hypothermia, Newborn falls, Skull fractures, Cadute neonatali, Fratture del cranio

Caring for the normal term and late preterm newborn infants calls for perinatal hospital practices that combine promotion of maternal infant bonding, breastfeeding and newborn health. Actually, the safety of some hospital practices, particularly skin-to-skin contact, co-bedding and exclusive breastfeeding have been questioned. In fact, sudden unexpected postnatal collapse has been associated with skin-to-skin contact (particularly in the first 2 hours of life) and to co-bedding. Moreover, exclusive breastfeeding has been blamed for possibly leading to excessive weight loss and hypernatriemia. After careful scrutiny, the aforementioned practices are not recognised per se the culprit as other secondary influencing factors have a major role; luckily, these secondary influencing factors are modifiable, thus suggesting preventive interventions. Current approach against unexpected pathological events in normal newborn infants considers a clear provision of information to families and the use of evidence based or good practice clinical protocols.