IMMEDIATELY AFTER BIRTH

Immediately after the birth, present in the delivery room is the

neonatologist. He is a pediatrician, a specialist in

newborns, who picks up the unborn child and visits him.

What are you going to see? What kind of visit do you do? Evaluate i

following parameters: heart rate, tone

muscle, respiratory activity, reflexes, complexion

of the skin. Each of these parameters is given a

score from 0 to 2. This evaluation is made to the first

and in the fifth minute, after birth, and if held

necessary, repeated every five minutes. Therefore such

score that can go from 0 to 10, configure the

so-called “Apgar Index”.

An Apgar index between 7 and 10 identifies a

healthy, vital, healthy newborn.

After this first check, the exams

they continue. In fact, between 48 and 72 hours from birth, the

newborn undergoes newborn screening,

provided for in Italy by law since 1992. With such a test, that

consists of a blood sample, which in this case

it is taken from the heel, to identify pathologies

metabolic which, if treated immediately, avoid im-

bearing. Initially we went to look for the

phenylketonuria, congentive hypothyroidism, fibrosis

cystic. Today, thanks to a laboratory technique

called Tandem Mass Spectrometry, you do one

extensive screening which detects the presence of about fifty

metabolic errors which could lead to abnormalities

serious problems of the physical and mental development of the unborn child.