Influence of Duration Since Birth Until Admission to Well-baby Nursery on Neonatal Temperature at Admission

Introduction Friendly Cesarean section mimics normal vaginal delivery as the newborn is put on mother's chest immediately after delivery and cutting the umbilical cord, and the mother even breastfeeds the newborn infant, if she wishes to. Friendly Cesarean section is offered to the mother if there are no contraindications, such as general anesthesia, fetal distress, or prematurity. Skin to skin contacts lasts for several minutes, as long as the mothers wish to, and depend on mothers' medical state, and newborns' medical state.

In friendly Cesarean section, the skin to skin contact technique includes putting the newborn on mother's chest, and covering them both by a blanket. Yet, during Cesarean section the mother is covered by a thin paper-like sterile sheet, and as the temperature in operating room is low, her skin cools gradually from the spinal anesthesia until actually delivering the newborn infant. So, although the newborn infant is put on the mother's chest and covered by a blanket, there is a possibility for it to develop hypothermia.

Literature about this issue is rare, so the investigators conducted a study to check this possibility.

Methods In Hillel Yaffe medical center nurses measure infants temperature on admission to well-baby nursery (WBN) or neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Admission is not always performed on arrival, due to other nurse-tasks, such as other newborn infants treatment, or breastfeeding education.

The most measureable piece of data that characterize friendly Cesarean section is the longer time interval from the birth until arrival to WBN or NICU.