What is it about?
Maternal education about jaundice should offer a safeguard for timely intervention to prevent brain damage in newborns when the health care system fails to monitor newborns properly. This review examines published evidence of maternal and care taker knowledge about newborn jaundice and its risks, and the relationship of knowledge and behavior to development of severe jaundice and brain injury.
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Why is it important?
Most cases of kernicterus (brain damage from severe newborn jaundice) can be attributed to delayed treatment, especially in low-middle income countries where postnatal followup of newborns is inconsistent.
Perspectives
In the West, screening newborns for severe jaundice and treatment with phototherapy (bright light exposure) is an accepted standard of care, but screening by health professionals in low income countries is at best sporadic, leading to a high incidence of death and permanent brain damage because of a delay in seeking care.
Richard Wennberg
University of Washington System
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Maternal Empowerment – an underutilized strategy to prevent kernicterus?, Current Pediatric Reviews, August 2017, Bentham Science Publishers,
DOI: 10.2174/1573396313666170828112038.
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