There’s no heel prick in low income countries because there isn’t the money for newborn screening.
Yep here it’s super common here in UgAnda the baby gets whisked away to check breathing, temperature, then gets washed, then gets wrapped up. Often babies are then given to mother wrapped in clothes. Skin to skin is highly variable and I would say the majority of babies don’t get it.
We should be careful about criticizing cultural norms. Cleaning and wrapping up the baby is often seen here as the best care they can get—it’s just unfortunate that it isn’t.
I don’t think it’s that wild that it isn’t the standard, I can easily see how other options after birth could be seen as “better” for a whole bunch of reasons.
Agree—in general when we want to keep someone warm we wrap them in warm clothes or blankets. I can see why it’s not intuitive to keep the baby undressed (and keep them warm in a different way).
There’s no heel prick in low income countries because there isn’t the money for newborn screening.
Yep here it’s super common here in UgAnda the baby gets whisked away to check breathing, temperature, then gets washed, then gets wrapped up. Often babies are then given to mother wrapped in clothes. Skin to skin is highly variable and I would say the majority of babies don’t get it.
We should be careful about criticizing cultural norms. Cleaning and wrapping up the baby is often seen here as the best care they can get—it’s just unfortunate that it isn’t.
I don’t think it’s that wild that it isn’t the standard, I can easily see how other options after birth could be seen as “better” for a whole bunch of reasons.
Agree—in general when we want to keep someone warm we wrap them in warm clothes or blankets. I can see why it’s not intuitive to keep the baby undressed (and keep them warm in a different way).