What is newborn screening?
Newborn screening is the process of testing babies for hidden, rare disorders. Newborn screening takes place before your baby leaves the hospital. With a simple blood test, doctors can tell whether newborns have certain conditions. Often, newborn screening is the only way to tell if newborns are affected, since these conditions cannot be seen at birth. In Minnesota, a few drops of blood are taken from the babys heel before the baby leaves the hospital. This small amount of blood is tested for over 50 disorders that: • affect how the body breaks down proteins (such as PKU) • cause hormone problems (such as congenital hypothyroidism) • cause blood problems (such as sickle cell disease) • affect how the body makes energy (such as MCAD) • affect breathing and getting nutrients from food (such as cystic fibrosis) Additionally, all babies born in Minnesota need to have their hearing checked before hospital discharge. Newborn hearing screening tests for hearing loss in the range where speech
Screening is done by taking a small sample of blood from an infant’s heel within the first 24-48 hours after birth. In March 2006, a screening test for cystic fibrosis (CF) was added to the 52 other conditions tested for in the Minnesota MDH’S program. Your primary care provider, physician, or nurse practitioner, receives the results of your infants newborn screening tests and contacts you for further testing and follow-up.
download the pdf Simple tests can be used to check a baby’s hearing right after birth. We don’t have to wait until children are older to check for hearing loss. Newborn hearing tests are important because a lot of help is available even when a hearing loss is found early in a baby’s life. Hearing screening programs are called “universal” because they are set up to test all babies. All babies can and should have their hearing tested before they leave the hospital, or within 3 weeks of leaving the hospital. If a baby is born at home, a hearing test should be completed before he or she is 2 months old. When a baby fails the screening tests, he or she is referred for more detailed, diagnostic hearing testing. If a hearing loss is found, then hearing aids and therapy services are started to help the baby learn to listen and speak. The following links may be helpful: www.infanthearing.org/ehdi.html www.infanthearing.org www.colorado.
Newborn screening for sickle cell is offered to all babies and is integrated into the existing bloodspot programme. Screening is already identifying approximately 300 babies a year who would be at risk of death unless penicillin was administered promptly. The SC&T programme is breaking new ground in the field of genetic testing. For the first time, a screening programme is not only revealing a condition but also identifying and systematically communicating carrier status. This has important ethical and cultural implications as well as significant learning issues for the NHS.
