Maternal assessment of neonatal jaundice after hospital discharge

Conclusions

One of the strategies recommended by the JCAHO to reduce the risk of kernicterus is to provide parents with adequate educational materials about newborn infants that include information about jaundice.² The message given to parents should be consistent, and should reassure mothers that most jaundiced infants are basically healthy. My study results suggest that it may also be useful for parents to be shown how to visually assess jaundice or to be given an Ingram icterometer to monitor their infants for jaundice after hospital discharge. Further study is needed to determine the optimal method of parental education about newborn jaundice.

Acknowledgments

This study was funded by a grant from the Ramsey Foundation. The author thanks Laura Lantz, Pamela Ristau, Kim Stone, Annette Swain, Mary Jo Feely, and the nurses at Integrated Home Care for their assistance with this project.