If you take a walk through the maternity ward to take a peak at other peoples newborns, you may notice that some have a yellow tinge to their skin tone. You might even pass the room where the bilirubin lamps are along with the bill-blanket. These babies have newborn jaundice. Most newborns develop some level of jaundice. The nurse will take a few drops of blood from a baby’s heel to measure the bilirubin levels, if jaundice is suspected in your baby.
What is Jaundice?
Jaundice happens in newborns when there is a buildup of a yellow pigment called bilirubin that is usually excreted by the liver. For newborns, having not fully developed livers, their bodies cannot handle the excess bilirubin causing it to settle into the skin reflecting a yellow color. (1)
Signs and Symptoms
If you are worried that your newborn has jaundice, you need to look at their skin and eyes. Does the skin seem yellow in color? Are the eyes yellow? If so, then ask your pediatrician to see if they are worried about the skin color. They can preform the test that you need to show the bilirubin levels.
Normal vs Abnormal Jaundice
With normal newborn jaundice it is important to note that it typically appears on the 3rd or 4th day postpartum. With normal jaundice, it might last for about a week and resolve on its own when the baby’s liver starts to mature. With abnormal jaundice, it typically develops a lot sooner, usually within 24hrs. This type of jaundice is caused by too many red blood cells being broken down too fast. Abnormal jaundice, a lot of the times is caused by incompatibility between the mothers and babies blood types. So the different blood types are just fighting each other. When this fighting happens, red blood cells are damaged, bilirubin is released and then jaundice occurs.
Risks
The biggest risk that is associated with jaundice is brain damage. If you have a full term baby then the risk goes way down but preterm babies are more at risk for developing brain damage.
Typical Treatments
It’s important to ask your doctor which jaundice your newborn has. You will see the Phototherapy lamps being used in hospitals. There are also bilirubin blankets that are available. The best thing that you can go for a jaundice baby is to breastfeed. Even if you are using the other treatments, unless a medical condition prevents it, you should still be able to breastfeed your baby. It is a crucial time for your newborn to learn how to breastfeed, frequent feedings help you build up your milk supply. Talk with your lactation consultant to see how you can still breastfeed while your newborn has jaundice.
Key Points to Remember
- Ask your doctor about which jaundice your newborn has.
- You will see yellow skin and yellow eyes with any jaundice newborn
- Biggest risk is brain damage, higher chance in premature babies
- Breastfeeding helps clear up jaundice
As you can see, newborn jaundice is quite common. There is also a type of jaundice that is really rare called, breastmilk jaundice. If this is what your doctor thinks might be happening, he will have you stop breastfeeding to see if the jaundice resolves itself. In the meantime, you will have to make sure to pump in order to build up your milk supply and not have a hard time starting it up again. This type of jaundice starts around 7-14th day of life. The reason this happens is still unclear. It would be unlikely that you would have to stop breastfeeding all together.
Work with your doctor to try to not sacrifice breastfeeding. There are many options for mothers now and jaundice babies. If you do choose to supplement, then again make sure you pump to not loose your milk supply.
Much love,
Krystina RN, BSN, CBE
Coach Mentor Trainer
