Introduction: First newborn care in the delivery room provided by midwives can have a major impact on the wellbeing of the mother and her newborn. It can affect their interaction and bonding, subsequently altering newborn's responses to the environment. This can lead to increased stress levels. With her actions, the midwife can prevent serious complications and facilitates the transition of the newborn to extrauterine life. To that effect the World Health Organization has released guidelines that are based on verified data. Purpose: The purpuse is to assess first care of a healthy newborn in the delivery room provided by midwives between Slovenian hospitals, examine deviations from general guidelines and identify differences in said care. Methods: A discriptive and causally non-experimental survey method was used. For literature review we used scientific literature as well as World Health Organization and Extended council of experts for pediatrics and oftalmology guideliness. The survey was conducted using a questionnaire in the 1KA programme on a sample of midwives employed in the delivery room. Results: There were 102 correctly answered surveys by midwives employed in the delivery room. The worst response was from the Brežice maternity hospital (1%), and the best from the Ljubljana maternity hospital (14%). The method and order of the first care of a newborn differs between maternity hospitals, as well as within individual maternity hospitals. Deviations from the World Health Organization guidelines are mainly in skin-to-skin contact, eye prophylaxis and umbilical cord care. Discussion and conclusion: In view of the results, general guidliness should be reviewd. The next logical step would be to standardize the practice within the maternity hospitals. Insight into the current situation can help us improve midwifery practice. Our aim was not only to highlight the deviation of practice from the current general guidelines, but also to improve conditions for mothers and newborns.
|
