Radioactive baby

As first time parents who attended NCT antenatal classes, read some informative books and in general, educated ourselves in the ways of babies (as much as one can, that is), being told our brand new Miss is 'jaundice' still came as quite the shock. What did we do wrong??

At an NCT newsletter planning meeting I discovered that practically all in attendance had a  jaundice story to tell. Alarmingly, at the time of our individual experiences, none of us really understood what being jaundice meant, or what to do about it. The idea for an article was born and these are a few things I have learnt about jaundice...

What is jaundice?

As defined by the Oxford Dictionary: a medical condition with yellowing of the skin or whites of the eyes, arising from excess of the pigment bilirubin and typically caused by obstruction of the bile duct, by liver disease, or by excessive breakdown of red blood cells. Or put more simply, in the case of a newborn, the yellowing of the skin and/or the whites of their eyes, caused by a build up of ‘bilirubin’. 

What is bilirubin?

Bilirubin is the yellow substance produced when red blood cells are broken down. The liver should naturally breakdown and filter out bilirubin. Jaundice occurs when red blood cells are broken down at a rate faster than the body is able to breakdown and filter out bilirubin.

How common is jaundice in newborns?

Very common. Around 60% of newborns have jaundice during their first week, increasing to around 80% for pre-term babies. Jaundice is more common and may last for longer in breastfed babies; around 10% will still have jaundice when they are around one month old.
So, that is jaundice in a nutshell. This is all fine and dandy, but when it is your child, at what point do you, if any, get worried??

My first born Miss

My husband remembers the midwife telling us our Miss had jaundice the afternoon of her birth, I remember her telling me the following day when she came back to check on us. I remember because Miss wanted to sleep. Miss did not want to feed. When I could convince Miss to wake and feed it lasted seconds before she went back to sleep. The midwife explained that in order to help get rid of the jaundice I had to feed Miss as often as possible, and even lay Miss in the sunshine (in January??). I remember feeling a little panicked because the one thing that we could do to help Miss get rid of jaundice was the one thing I was struggling with – feeding! I remember trying every ‘wake up’ trick the midwife suggested: tickling feet, nudging cheeks, removing clothes, dripping cool water on skin etc. And I remember trying every feeding trick we learned in antenatal class: breast, bottle, cup, syringe – all with breast milk. I even set an alarm that went off every three hours to remind me to try to feed Miss – just in case I forgot and in case Miss didn’t cry for food.

Nothing seemed to work, and when family commented that our baby seemed radioactive in the photo’s we had sent them we went to hospital to have Miss checked out – just to be sure. After all, how were we to know exactly how common this jaundice thing is? And how were we to know how yellow is too yellow?

We had a home birth and so it was not as though they could quickly pop Miss under the lamps to help with the bilirubin breakdown (I vaguely recalled something about the lamps from the antenatal class…). Perhaps if we had had a hospital birth this might have happened. But we didn’t. And it didn’t. We had a home birth and exclusively breastfed (save for one panicked 3am feed) in the middle of a cold, dark winter. With the benefit of hindsight and experience it was probably to be expected that Miss would be a little 'radioactive'. And it was also probably to be expected that the jaundice would last a while (it lasted just over a month). But the way we remember it, every feed was a battle in those first two or three weeks. We battled with Miss to be awake and feeding. Miss battled with us to go back to sleep...

*Please note, the aim of this piece is to offer basic, statistical information about jaundice and to share my jaundice experience. This article is not intended to, nor should be used as a qualified medical reference or source. Please always speak with an appropriate medical professional (eg your midwife, health visitor, GP or other medical professional) should you have any questions or concerns with regards the health of your child(ren).

Next time: That age old question...