EARLY DISCHARGE OF THE NEWBORN BABY

Key words: Newborn, Early discharge, Domiciliary care

The Authors discuss risks and negative side effects of early discharge of the newborn baby. Studies carried out in USA show that less than 3% of babies who had been discharged witin 24-48 hours needed to be readmitted. Most of the readmissions were due to jaundice, a few to dehydration, nutritional problems and previously undiagnosed congenital anomalies. The concept of early discharge should be reconsidered, however, since the widely perceived need is a timing of discharge suited to the mother’s and baby’s conditions and a postnatal domiciliary care and support. Several pilot projects have been started based on these principles and guidelines have been recently established for health service networking.