Assessing the condition of your baby after birth

If your baby comes out and needs some help breathing, or their heart rate is not at a normal level, they may need some additional support. If this happens, the team of midwifes (and paediatric doctors if you are in a hospital) will step in to help immediately. There may be lots of people coming into the room to help. This will mean you will not get to have skin-to-skin straight away as your baby needs to be taken to the right place to be resuscitated. For most babies, all that will be required is some encouragement to breathe.

However, for others more support is required, and in some cases, we need to help babies’ hearts to beat. Around 7 in 100 babies will need some extra help to breathe after birth.

If this happens, we understand that this can be worrying but your baby will only be away from you as long as it takes to stabilise them. Usually, they will be back with you very quickly, but sometimes it is necessary for them to be transferred to the neonatal unit for further care and more tests.

If we suspect that your baby may be born needing support, we may ask to take a blood test from the umbilical cord after you have given birth to the baby and the placenta.

When your baby is born, your midwife will do immediate observations on your baby (called an APGAR) to decide if it is necessary to resuscitate them or call for help. It may be necessary to do other tests for example check oxygen levels.

All babies will have an early examination to make sure there are no obvious problems, and to check things such as their head size, weight and temperature checked.

References:

Intrapartum care. NICE guidelines Published September 29, 2023. Accessed October 18, 2023. https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng235/chapter/Recommendations#planning-place-of-birth 

1. Birthplace in England research programme | sheer | NPEU. Accessed October 18, 2023. https://www.npeu.ox.ac.uk/birthplace 

2. Fetal monitoring in labour. NICE guidelines. Published December 14, 2022. Accessed October 20, 2023. https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng229 

3. Quality statement 7: Skin-to-skin contact | Intrapartum care | Quality standards | NICE. Published December 10, 2015. Accessed October 20, 2023. https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/qs105/chapter/quality-statement-7-skin-to-skin-contact 

4.  Postnatal care of the baby | Guidance | NICE. Published April 20, 2021. Accessed November 20, 2023. https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng194/chapter/Recommendations#postnatal-care-of-the-baby 

5. Lee AC, Cousens S, Wall SN, et al. Neonatal resuscitation and immediate newborn assessment and stimulation for the prevention of neonatal deaths: a systematic review, meta-analysis and Delphi estimation of mortality effect. BMC Public Health. 2011;11(3):S12. doi:10.1186/1471-2458-11-S3-S12