Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) is a serious illness in newborns. It happens when tissue in the large intestine (colon) gets inflamed. This inflammation damages and sometimes kills the tissue in your baby’s colon.
Neonatal abstinence syndrome is what happens when babies are exposed to drugs in the uterus before birth. Babies can then go through drug withdrawal after birth.
Learning to breastfeed effectively is a process that may take days or weeks for premature and many other high-risk babies. But you and your baby can become a breastfeeding team if you are patient and persistent.
“Fresh breastmilk” contains the most active anti-infective properties. Refrigerated breastmilk has fewer anti-infective properties than fresh milk and frozen breastmilk has the least.
Meconium aspiration happens when a newborn breathes in a mixture of meconium and amniotic fluid. Amniotic fluid is the liquid that surrounds the baby in the womb. Meconium is the baby’s first stool, or poop, which is sticky, thick, and dark green. It is typically passed in the womb during early pregnancy and again in the first few days after birth.
Large for gestational age is used to describe newborn babies who weigh more than the usual amount for the number of weeks of pregnancy. Babies are called large for gestational age if they weigh more than 9 in 10 babies of the same gestational age.
