Oxygen saturation in healthy infants immediately after birth

Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Measurements of Cerebral Oxygenation in Newborns during Immediate Postnatal Adaptation

“…Furthermore and even more importantly, caution must prevail before assuming that the range of SpO 2 values measured in healthy term and near-term infants also applies to more preterm infants or to sick preterm and term neonates. 3 On the other hand, the additional use of a pulse oximeter during the first 10 minutes of life has the advantage of providing a continuous reading of heart rate, and in helping to reduce the oxygen concentration, for instance in infants with tcSO 2 readings ≥ 95%. 18 A limitation of our study concerns the fact that our study group does not fully represent the true normal group of newborns.…”

“…While there is a substantial body of literature concerning the changes in peripheral arterial oxygen saturation immediately after birth [1][2][3] , there is much less available information regarding the changes in cerebral oxygenation during the immediate adaptation. This is of importance considering that worldwide 5-10% of neonates need active resuscitation measures.…”

Oxygen Saturation Profile in Healthy Term Neonates in the Immediate Post Natal Period

“…The 2010 ILCOR recommendations state that resuscitation can be initiated with room air or blended oxygen but it should be guided by measurement of oxygen saturation using pulse oximetry and the target saturation should fall in the interquartile range of preductal saturations measured in healthy term babies following vaginal birth at sea level [2]. These recommendations are based on the existing data on oxygen saturation of healthy term newborns in the first few minutes of life [10][11][12][13][14][15][16]. While such data exists in abundance, it is lacking as far as Indian population is concerned.…”

Clinical practices in neonatal oxygenation: where have we failed? What can we do?

“…This may take several minutes after birth, and, therefore, we should not aim for a saturation >90% immediately after birth. 14,15 The neonatal PaO 2 is around 55 to 75 mm Hg, rarely >80 mm Hg, based on the alveolar gas equation and intra-and extrapulmonary shunts. However, when we give infants FiO 2 >0.21, it is impossible to predict how high the PaO 2 is when the SaO 2 is 97 to 100%.…”