Category Archives: Neonatal Research

Breast milk doesn’t make you smarter?

Posted on 16 November 2016 by Keith Barrington

A newly published RCT seems at first glance to challenge the overall verdict of the literature that consuming breast milk improves intellectual development, particularly for preterm infants. (O’Connor DL, et al. Effect of Supplemental Donor Human Milk Compared With Preterm Formula on … Continue reading →

Posted in Neonatal Research | 3 Comments

Teaching clinicians to evaluate encephalopathy

Posted on 10 November 2016 by Keith Barrington

I hope this link stays active for ever as it is a great resource… Courtney Wusthoff from Stanford has developed a web-based educational tool, designed initially, I think, for medical (pediatric) residents. Their team has evaluated whether or not this … Continue reading →

Posted in Neonatal Research | Tagged | 3 Comments

38 weeks is too early

Posted on 10 November 2016 by Keith Barrington

In New South Wales (the part of Australia around Sydney) their public health databases record not just gestational age, but the mode of delivery and whether there was an induction of labour, or labour prior to caesarean delivery. In the … Continue reading →

Posted in Neonatal Research | Tagged | Leave a comment

Re-evaluating what is really friendly to babies

Posted on 9 November 2016 by Keith Barrington

Many hospitals are very proud of being “baby friendly” or are trying to achieve “baby friendly hospital” certification, under the WHO initiative. Unfortunately many parts of that program are not evidence-based, such as (as one example) the ban on soothers … Continue reading →

Posted in Clinical Practice Guidelines, Neonatal Research | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Antenatal Steroids closer to term?

Posted on 4 November 2016 by Keith Barrington

A new systematic review in the BMJ (Saccone G, Berghella V. Antenatal corticosteroids for maturity of term or near term fetuses: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. BMJ. 2016;355:i5044) includes 3 studies which examined the use of antenatal … Continue reading →

Posted in Neonatal Research | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments

What outcomes matter to parents? A new publication

Posted on 1 November 2016 by Keith Barrington

This new publication of ours has been an interesting process, Annie Janvier and I wrote it in collaboration with other parent representatives, Barb Farlow, who we have collaborated with previously, a mother of a little girl who had trisomy 13, … Continue reading →

Posted in Neonatal Research | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Delivery room interventions for the profoundly immature: what are we doing, what should we do?

Posted on 19 October 2016 by Keith Barrington

I still haven’t found the best term for babies who are born so immature that their chances of survival are significantly reduced. Extremely Low Gestational Age Newborn, or ELGAN is a term which is not pretty but has the advantage … Continue reading →

Posted in Neonatal Research | 2 Comments

Oxygen, getting the dose right. Not so easy.

Posted on 13 October 2016 by Keith Barrington

Preterm babies require differing concentrations of oxygen to maintain them within the optimal saturation range, which is clearly the low 90’s, from all the data we have so far (Saugstad OD, Aune D. Optimal Oxygenation of Extremely Low Birth Weight … Continue reading →

Posted in Neonatal Research | 1 Comment

It’s only mild Encephalopathy; now can we stop worrying?

Posted on 29 September 2016 by Keith Barrington

I learnt as a fellow that infants whose maximum grade of HIE was Sarnat 1, or mild, had normal outcomes. I recognized that the data to support that were limited, but one of the best older studies was by my … Continue reading →

Posted in Neonatal Research | 2 Comments

It doesn’t make much difference how often we feed babies

Posted on 29 September 2016 by Keith Barrington

Over the years there have a number of studies comparing two different feeding regimes. Most recently there has been a comparison of 2 hourly vs 3 hourly feeds and a comparison of feeds every 3 hours compared to 4 feeds … Continue reading →

Posted in Neonatal Research | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment