An examination of newborn intensive care finds that newborns undergo numerous procedures that are associated with pain and stress, and that many of these procedures are performed without medication or therapy to relieve pain, according to a study in the July 2 issue of JAMA.

Using sucrose to reduce pain in newborns undergoing painful procedures should be limited to babies having blood taken (venipuncture) for the newborn screening test but not for intramuscular injections, write Dr. Anna Taddio and co-authors.

When newborns suffering from a form of asphyxia at birth have better access to head cooling devices, fewer will face a lifetime of debilitating and costly health complications, according to researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC).

A University of South Florida fetal surgeon at Tampa General Hospital successfully treated in utero a rare but potentially devastating condition in which placental blood vessels block the birth canal and can rupture during labor, leaving the baby without vital blood and oxygen.

Gene-chip studies provide new leads in treating lung disease of premature newborns

In support of the latest March of Dimes Newborn Screening Report Card, the American College of Medical Genetics (ACMG) strongly urges every state to require complete testing of all newborns for a ‘core panel’ of genetic and congenital conditions. It is estimated that currently more than 500,000 babies annually are still not screened for the full panel of debilitating or life-threatening disorders.

Scientists at Children’s National Medical Center have demonstrated conclusively that a specific protein and its signaling activity are instrumental in myelination and remyelination, processes essential to the creation and repair of the brain’s white matter.

In Africa, millions of pregnant women and children under five die because of poor maternal and pre-natal care. But health care specialists say those numbers can be dramatically reduced by following a few easy and inexpensive methods to ensure the good health of mothers and their newborns. From Washington, reporter William Eagle tells us about one – breast-feeding.

An analysis of nearly 300 umbilical cord blood samples led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health shows that newborn babies are exposed to perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoate (PFOA) while in the womb.

Researchers at the University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom have found that, as for rodents and other nonprimates, prenatal exposure of nonhuman primate African vervet monkeys (Chloroceus aethiops) to glucocorticoids has long-lasting deleterious effects on cardiovascular, metabolic, and neuroendocrine function.