Newborn News and Research

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Silk patch enables painless monitoring of premature babies' health

In the neonatal intensive care unit, the most fragile patients in medicine are often the most heavily wired. Premature babies, some weighing less than a pound, can be tethered to a tangle of cables, monitors, and sensors.

9 Jul 2026

Paternal postpartum depression affects more fathers than widely recognized

Postpartum depression in mothers is a widely recognized condition that affects 1 in 7 women. But less known is that 1 in 10 new fathers also experience depression.

8 Jul 2026

Early skin-to-skin contact helps calm newborns but does not lower bilirubin

Early skin-to-skin contact after vaginal birth reduced newborn stress during routine vitamin K injection and improved exclusive breastfeeding rates by day 5. However, it did not significantly lower day-5 bilirubin levels, leaving its effect on neonatal jaundice uncertain.

7 Jul 2026

Mexico's infant mortality remains stubborn despite healthcare access gains

Over the decade from 2014 to 2023, Mexico's infant death rate barely budged, suggesting the country hit a wall in saving babies' lives-even as official paperwork claimed that almost all babies had a medical professional present when they died.

2 Jul 2026

Difficult childbirth is not unique to humans, study finds

The tight fit of a baby's head through a mother's birth canal, which causes great difficulty in childbirth, is not unique to humans, as previously understood.

29 Jun 2026

Targeted investments can significantly reduce newborn deaths by 2040

A global analysis spanning 194 countries reveals a mixed picture for newborn survival: deaths caused by birth asphyxia, trauma, and prematurity have declined markedly since 2000, yet progress is slowing in many low- and middle-income countries, particularly across sub-Saharan Africa.

25 Jun 2026

New pathway speeds up biliary atresia diagnosis in newborns

BA is difficult to detect because early jaundice can resemble common newborn conditions, and pale stools may not appear immediately.

24 Jun 2026

WHO urges countries to expand newborn screening for birth defects

The World Health Organization (WHO) today calls on countries to expand newborn screening for birth defects, highlighting how early detection and treatment can save lives and reduce lifelong disability for millions of children.

24 Jun 2026

NIH funds University of Minnesota research on congenital cytomegalovirus infection

A University of Minnesota Medical School research team has received a new 5-year, $3.87 million R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to investigate how the immune system protects against congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection.

23 Jun 2026

Nursery videos effectively educate first-time fathers on infant care

Brief videos shown in the hospital newborn nursery may be an effective way to educate first-time fathers on infant care topics, such as safe sleep, infant crying and car safety, according to a pilot study published in the journal Pediatrics Open Science.

19 Jun 2026

Developing brain cells routinely repair severe DNA damage during migration

Newborn nerve cells must squeeze through crowded, narrow spaces-through dense tissue, past other cells, between fibers-to reach the areas where they form neural circuits in the brain cortex.

17 Jun 2026

Doctors find unexpected regional differences in retinopathy of prematurity in Norway

It's a mystery. The eye disease known as retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) can make infants permanently blind if they are not treated. But there are big differences between how often Norwegian hospitals actually provide this treatment.

16 Jun 2026

Researchers urge caution over large-scale newborn genome screening

New research from large population studies provides invaluable evidence on genome screening of newborn babies to reduce risks from overdiagnosis.

15 Jun 2026

Noninvasive sequencing expands prenatal genetic screening capabilities

While non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) has revolutionised prenatal diagnostics by allowing the detection of a number of genetic problems in a fetus, it is currently limited and thus misses many genetic causes of abnormalities.

12 Jun 2026

Newborn upper lip frenulum unlikely causes breastfeeding difficulties

A joint study by the University of Oulu and Oulu University Hospital suggests that a newborn's upper lip frenulum is unlikely to be a major cause of breastfeeding difficulties.

12 Jun 2026

Oral swab detects hidden inflammation in rare lung disease

Researchers at UTHealth Houston have identified different types of hidden systemic inflammation in patients with primary ciliary dyskinesia, even when they are not experiencing acute illness.

9 Jun 2026

Global decline in child mortality slowed down significantly since 2015

Global progress in reducing preventable deaths among newborn babies, children, and adolescents has slowed substantially since 2015, and many countries risk missing international child survival targets by 2030, find a series of papers published by The BMJ today.

4 Jun 2026