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Neonatal Care Terminology

A glossary of common terms related to newborn assessment, intensive care, breathing support, nutrition, treatment, and discharge planning.

Neonatal Care Terminology

Use this glossary to explain common terms that families, caregivers, and healthcare professionals may hear when discussing newborn care, premature birth, or a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit stay.

Neonatal care may include monitoring, breathing support, diagnostic testing, nutrition, medication, developmental care, and family education. The care a newborn receives depends on gestational age, medical condition, symptoms, and response to treatment.

Care settings and basic terms

  • Neonatal care: Specialized medical and nursing care for newborns, including infants who are premature, ill, or need additional monitoring after birth.
  • Neonatology: The medical specialty focused on the care of newborns, especially premature or critically ill infants.
  • Neonatologist: A physician who specializes in caring for newborns with complex medical needs.
  • Newborn or neonate: A baby during the first period after birth.
  • Premature or preterm: Born before 37 completed weeks of pregnancy.
  • Gestational age: The number of weeks of pregnancy completed at the time of birth or another assessment.
  • Corrected age: An infant’s age adjusted for the number of weeks they were born before their due date. Healthcare professionals may use corrected age when discussing development and follow-up.
  • Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU): A specialized hospital unit for newborns who need intensive monitoring, treatment, or breathing support.
  • Neonatal nursery or special care nursery: A unit that provides care for newborns who need more support or observation than is available in a routine newborn nursery but may not need intensive care.
  • Neonatal team: The healthcare professionals involved in a newborn’s care, which may include physicians, nurses, respiratory therapists, lactation professionals, pharmacists, social workers, and developmental specialists.
  • Family-centered care: Care that includes the family or caregivers in communication, education, decision-making, and comfort measures when appropriate.
  • Kangaroo care: Holding a diapered newborn skin-to-skin against a parent or caregiver’s bare chest while the newborn is monitored and supported as needed.
  • Rooming-in: A care arrangement in which a parent or caregiver stays with the newborn in the hospital and practices caregiving before discharge.

Assessment and monitoring

  • Apgar score: A quick assessment of a newborn’s condition after birth. It considers factors such as heart rate, breathing, muscle tone, reflex response, and skin color.
  • Vital signs: Measurements such as heart rate, breathing rate, temperature, blood pressure, and oxygen saturation.
  • Monitor: Equipment that records and displays measurements such as heart rate, breathing, oxygen level, and sometimes blood pressure.
  • Pulse oximeter or pulse ox: A sensor that estimates the amount of oxygen in the blood, usually through a sensor placed on the hand or foot.
  • Apnea: A temporary pause in breathing. In premature newborns, apnea may occur with a slow heart rate or a drop in oxygen level.
  • Bradycardia: A heart rate that is slower than expected for the newborn’s condition or age.
  • Desaturation or desat: A drop in the newborn’s blood oxygen level.
  • Blood gas: A test using a blood sample to measure oxygen, carbon dioxide, acidity, and other information about breathing and blood chemistry.
  • Complete blood count (CBC): A blood test that measures red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets, and hemoglobin.
  • Blood culture: A laboratory test that checks a blood sample for bacteria or other organisms that may cause infection.
  • Sepsis evaluation: A group of examinations and laboratory tests used to assess whether a newborn may have a serious infection.
  • Newborn screening: A blood test or other screening performed after birth to check for certain conditions that may benefit from early treatment.
  • Head ultrasound: An imaging test that uses sound waves to examine a newborn’s brain, including screening for bleeding such as intraventricular hemorrhage.
  • Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) screening: Eye examinations used to check the development of blood vessels in the eyes of eligible premature newborns.

Breathing and respiratory support

  • Respiratory distress: Difficulty breathing or increased effort to breathe. Signs may include fast breathing, grunting, flaring of the nostrils, or pulling in of the chest.
  • Respiratory distress syndrome (RDS): A breathing disorder, often associated with prematurity, in which immature lungs do not produce enough surfactant to keep the air sacs open.
  • Surfactant: A substance in the lungs that helps keep the air sacs open and supports the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide. Some premature newborns receive surfactant as treatment.
  • Oxygen therapy: Supplemental oxygen given to support the newborn’s oxygen level.
  • Nasal cannula: Small prongs placed in the nose to deliver oxygen or a mixture of air and oxygen.
  • Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP): Breathing support that delivers pressurized air or oxygen through nasal prongs or a mask to help keep the lungs open.
  • Endotracheal tube (ET tube): A soft breathing tube placed through the mouth or nose into the trachea to deliver air, oxygen, or breaths.
  • Intubation: Placing an endotracheal tube into the trachea to support the airway and breathing.
  • Extubation: Removing the endotracheal tube after the newborn can breathe with less or no support.
  • Ventilator: A machine that helps a newborn breathe by delivering controlled amounts of air and oxygen through a breathing tube.
  • Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD): A chronic lung condition that may affect premature newborns who need prolonged oxygen or breathing support.
  • Persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn (PPHN): A condition in which blood does not flow through the newborn’s lungs as expected, making it difficult to add oxygen to the blood.
  • Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO): An advanced form of life support in which a machine adds oxygen to the blood and removes carbon dioxide while allowing the heart or lungs to rest.

Lines, fluids, and medications

  • Peripheral intravenous line (PIV or IV): A small tube placed in a vein, often in a hand, arm, foot, leg, or scalp, to give fluids or medication.
  • Central line: An intravenous line that reaches a larger vein and may be used for longer-term medication, fluids, or nutrition.
  • Peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC): A long, thin catheter inserted through a peripheral vein and advanced toward a larger central vein.
  • Umbilical arterial catheter (UAC): A catheter placed in an umbilical artery to monitor blood pressure or obtain blood samples.
  • Umbilical venous catheter (UVC): A catheter placed in an umbilical vein to give fluids, medication, nutrition, or blood products.
  • Infusion pump: A machine that delivers a precise amount of fluid, nutrition, or medication over time.
  • Antibiotics: Medications used to treat or prevent certain bacterial infections.
  • Caffeine therapy: Medication sometimes used to stimulate breathing and reduce episodes of apnea in premature newborns.
  • Blood transfusion: Giving compatible blood or blood products through an IV or catheter to treat blood loss or a low blood count.
  • Exchange transfusion: A procedure in which some of a newborn’s blood is gradually replaced with compatible blood, sometimes used for severe jaundice or other conditions.

Nutrition and feeding

  • Breast milk or expressed breast milk: Milk collected from a lactating parent and given to the newborn by breast, bottle, or feeding tube.
  • Donor human milk: Human milk that has been donated, screened, processed, and provided for another newborn when appropriate.
  • Feeding tube: A small tube used to provide milk or nutrition when a newborn cannot safely or effectively feed by mouth.
  • Nasogastric (NG) tube: A feeding tube passed through the nose into the stomach.
  • Orogastric (OG) tube: A feeding tube passed through the mouth into the stomach.
  • Gavage feeding: Giving milk through a feeding tube into the stomach.
  • Nothing by mouth (NPO): An instruction that the newborn should not receive food or liquid by mouth for a specified period.
  • Total parenteral nutrition (TPN): Nutrition provided through an IV when a newborn cannot receive enough nutrition through the stomach or intestines.
  • Fortifier: A supplement added to human milk to provide extra calories, protein, vitamins, or minerals when medically indicated.
  • Trophic feeds: Very small amounts of milk given to help stimulate and prepare the digestive system before larger feedings are introduced.
  • Feeding readiness: The newborn’s ability to coordinate sucking, swallowing, and breathing safely during oral feeding.

Common conditions and treatments

  • Jaundice: Yellowing of the skin or eyes caused by a buildup of bilirubin.
  • Bilirubin: A yellow substance produced when red blood cells break down. Newborns may have difficulty processing bilirubin because the liver is still developing.
  • Hyperbilirubinemia: A higher-than-expected level of bilirubin in the blood.
  • Phototherapy: Treatment using special light to help the body process and remove excess bilirubin.
  • Hypoglycemia: A blood glucose level that is lower than expected and may require monitoring, feeding support, or treatment.
  • Anemia: A lower-than-expected number of red blood cells or amount of hemoglobin, which can reduce the blood’s ability to carry oxygen.
  • Sepsis: A serious, potentially life-threatening response to an infection. Newborns may receive testing and antibiotics when sepsis is suspected.
  • Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC): A serious condition involving inflammation and injury to the intestines, most often affecting premature or medically fragile newborns.
  • Patent ductus arteriosus (PDA): An opening between major blood vessels near the heart that normally closes after birth but may remain open and require monitoring or treatment.
  • Intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH): Bleeding into or around the fluid-filled spaces, called ventricles, in a newborn’s brain.
  • Meconium: A newborn’s first stool, which is usually thick and dark green or black.
  • Meconium aspiration syndrome: Breathing problems that can occur when a newborn breathes meconium into the lungs before or around the time of birth.

Discharge planning and follow-up

  • Discharge readiness: The newborn’s ability to maintain body temperature, breathe safely, feed adequately, gain weight, and meet other individualized criteria for going home.
  • Car seat test: A period of monitoring in an approved car seat to assess whether a premature or medically fragile newborn can maintain safe breathing and oxygen levels while positioned for travel.
  • Safe sleep: Placing a newborn on their back on a firm, flat sleep surface without loose bedding, pillows, or soft objects, according to current safe-sleep guidance.
  • Discharge education: Teaching for parents or caregivers about feeding, medications, equipment, warning signs, appointments, safe sleep, and when to seek help.
  • Room air: Breathing the normal surrounding air without supplemental oxygen.
  • Follow-up care: Appointments and services after discharge, which may include the primary care professional, neonatology, ophthalmology, audiology, developmental specialists, or early-intervention services.
  • Early intervention: Developmental services for eligible infants and young children who may benefit from support with movement, communication, feeding, learning, or other skills.

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