What I tell mums is that babies are born with high haemoglobins,which they
need inutero but no longer need once they are born.
Bilirubin is the by-product of the breakdown of the heamoglobin and the
liver genrally gets rid of the bilirubin,however as babies' livers don't
mature for about a month,they have some difficulty with handling the
bilirubin breakdown load ,so some gets back into the baby's circulation
,getting into the tissues staining it yellow.

That there are 2 types of jaundice physiological jaundice which most babies
get around day 4-5 day,usually requiring no treatment as it disappears of
its own accord as the gut works and flushes it out.Sometimes takes longer if
baby hasn't passed a bowel motion due to having a mec plug but once gotten
rid of,bowels function normally and jaundice fades away.Usually use my own
experience with my eldest son who was quite jaundice with mec plug till day
3 no bowel motions.
Then there is the pathological type which is cause by blood group
incompatabilities or associated with infection,biliary atresia,specific
conditions etc.

If their baby does need to go under lights,then a simple explanation is that
the lights act like sunlight breaking the bilirubin down into watersoluble
molecules which can easily be flushed out of their baby's systems via urine
and bowel motions.They may also find that they have to feed their baby more
frequently if breastfeeding for this to be effective.

I find that they are not interested in numbers for bilirubin levels,I
generally explain about how far down body jaundice is and how to tell from
pushing on skin and the colour of eyes to work out what degree of jaundice
has occurred.

Anne Clements RN EM BNS
Brisbane QLD
Australia

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