The newborn infant's thermal environment in the delivery room when skin-to-skin care has to be interrupted

The newborn infant's thermal environment in the delivery room when skin-to-skin care has to be interrupted

Newborns are prone to hypothermia immediately following birth. Hypothermia is associated with increased morbidity and mortality rates. We sought to assess the thermal environment and metabolic costs associated with exposure to various situations in the delivery room when skin-to-skin care (SSC) has...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:The journal of maternal-fetal & neonatal medicine Vol. 35; no. 19; pp. 3707 - 3713
Main Authors: Dubos, Céline, Delanaud, Stéphane, Brenac, William, Chahin Yassin, Fatima, Carpentier, Mathieu, Tourneux, Pierre
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Taylor & Francis 02-10-2022
Subjects:
delivery room
heat exchanges
Human health and pathology
infant
Life Sciences
Newborn
skin-to-skin care
temperature
Hypothermia/etiology/prevention & control
heat exchanges
Humans
Body Temperature Regulation
Skin Care
skin-to-skin care
infant
Pregnancy
Delivery Rooms
Newborn
temperature
Female
delivery room
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Newborns are prone to hypothermia immediately following birth. Hypothermia is associated with increased morbidity and mortality rates. We sought to assess the thermal environment and metabolic costs associated with exposure to various situations in the delivery room when skin-to-skin care (SSC) has to be curtailed. Environmental variables (air temperature: T a ; relative humidity: RH; radiative temperature: T r ; and air convection velocity) were recorded during sequences reproducing SSC, in the maternity unit's various rooms ("passive environments") and in incubators ("active environments"). Analytical calorimetry was then used to calculate the body heat loss (BHL) from these data. The analysis of 1280 measurements of T a, RH, T r , and air convection velocity in SSC, passive and active environments revealed that (i) the thermohygrometric environment during SSC was optimal (T a : 32.7 ± 3.2 °C; RH: 50.9 ± 5.6%), (ii) BHL rose when SSC had to be interrupted, and (iii) the use of a radiant incubator prevented hypothermia and reduced dry BHL but not humid BHL (9.4 ± 1.5 kcal/kg/h; p < .001), relative to SSC (5.8 ± 2.0 kcal/kg/h; p < .001). The newborn infant's thermohygrometric environment is optimal during SSC in the delivery room. When SSC was interrupted, T a and RH always decreased, and BHL increased in all passive environments.
ISSN:1476-7058
1476-4954
DOI:10.1080/14767058.2020.1838479