In a message dated 12/31/01 6:55:22 PM, [log in to unmask] writes:
Therese writes;
>After having babies at breast for perhaps two minutes, mom says,
>"This baby looks kind of dark, doesn't she?" Baby was dusky. Heart rate
>of
>60, apneic.
Premies, in particular, but even normal newborns in the first day or two of
life often become slightly dusky and even drop their heartrates during
feedings or at other times; refluxing for instance.
 Most often it happens to such a mild degree that only the trained eye can
pick it up but what the parent notices is that the baby becomes limp and
sleepy so their first reaction is to move the baby eg. pick the baby up to
burp or whatever and for most this "stimulation" breaks the apnea, causing
them to take a deep breath, cough etc. Exactly what we do in the NICU to
premies who exhibit the apnea and bradycardia of prematurity. What happened
to this baby could have been an exagerated version of this; most likely
scenario babe's airway was a little obstructed at breast which exacerbated
the "normal" occurence, remember even more "normal" in the premie OR it could
point to signs that the baby is "sick". Assuming that the baby continued to
be fine after the bag and mask O2,  that the baby isn't septic etc., and
assuming that the scenario progressed exactly as you described, I would
expect the baby to be fine.
Of course, as someone suggested, you would want to monitor these babes
closely during feeding while hospitalized to be sure they have outgrown, what
is most likely a normal variant, before discharge while paying close
attention to the unique positioning needs of the premie.
Newborns are amazingly resilient creatures. It may help you to know that I
attended the delivery of a baby who had no heart rate at birth and who
continued to be asystolic throught 3 lines of resuscitation meds and
30minutes of CPR and who suffered only mild developmental delay at one year
of age!
I'm not sure what this has to do with cosleeping though!
Lynn Shea Rn,Bsn,Ibclc
Franklin,Massachusetts

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