This thread is straying a bit off topic, as it is not directly breastfeeding
related to discuss one's experience renting equipment to treat jaundice at
home.
Still, the number of responses, and the need for this, intrigues me.  

Does anyone have hard data on the proportion of term newborns who get
phototherapy for pronounced physiologic jaundice in the US?  Any other
countries?  Also, are there standards for threshhold values, or does it vary
from unit to unit?  If there are standard threshhold values, what are they?
Our threshhold values depend on baby's age in hours, birth weight, and
gestational age, easily determined by plotting the baby's bilirubin value on
a graph showing the various limits.  For outright hemolytic disease we have
separate procedures, of course.

It sounds like a lot more babies are getting treated than what I am used to,
which is **way** under ten per cent of babies born after 37 completed weeks
of gestation.  Of course it is higher for babies born preterm.  We don't
have any provisions for phototherapy outside the hospital.  

Rachel Myr (midwife in a level III hospital)
Kristiansand, Norway

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