Managing neonatal pain

The effects of various interventions to newborns on pain and duration of crying

“…Crying is the most marked and observable behavioural response of the newborns to pain (Akdovan 1999, Hutchinson & Hall 2005). Comparing the control and experimental groups for crying times at different procedure times showed that the newborns in the sucrose group had the longest crying time (52 seconds) (Table 5a,b).…”

“…2000, Ovalı 2002). As a result, the belief that newborns cannot feel pain or feel it to its fullest has been replaced by the dilemma that the newborns feel it to a certain extent but it cannot be evaluated (Hutchinson & Hall 2005).…”

“…Inadequate evaluation of or failure to evaluate pain in newborns may lead to ineffective management of pain (Hutchinson & Hall 2005). Hence, accurate evaluation of pain and use of effective pain management strategies to reduce or eliminate pain, as well as comforting newborns should be the primary aims of the nurse providing care for them (Plaja & Alesi 2004, Hutchinson & Hall 2005). A baby whose pain is managed well will have a healthy newborn period and thus, will stay in hospital for a short time and will have a rapid growth rate.…”

“…All interventions performed without the use of medications are considered non‐pharmacological methods. Several non‐pharmacologic therapies have been shown to be beneficial to the management of mild to moderate pain in the neonate (Plaja & Alesi 2004, Hutchinson & Hall 2005). Non‐pharmacological interventions can reduce neonatal pain indirectly by reducing the total amount of noxious stimuli to which infants are exposed and directly, by blocking nociceptive transduction or transmission or activation of descending inhibitory pathways or by activating attention and arousal systems that modulate pain (Carbajal 2005).…”

“…In addition, ethical concerns have arisen and prevention or minimisation of the pain felt by hospitalised newborns has gained importance (Mitchell et al 2000, Ovalı 2002. As a result, the belief that newborns cannot feel pain or feel it to its fullest has been replaced by the dilemma that the newborns feel it to a certain extent but it cannot be evaluated (Hutchinson & Hall 2005).…”