Mother & Neonatal Nursing Care

Neonatal Screening

Neonatal Screening is a public health program of screening in infants shortly after birth for a list of conditions that are treatable, but not clinically evident in the newborn period. Some of the conditions included in newborn screening programs are only perceptible after irreversible damage has been done, in some cases sudden death is the first manifestation of a disease.Newborn screening appearance as a public health program in the United States in the early 1960s, and has expanded to countries around the world, with different testing commands in each country. Both newborn screening (screening soon after birth) and prenatal screening (screening before birth) have improved health care. The first disorder detected by modern newborn screening programs was phenylketonuria, a metabolic condition in which the inability to regard the essential amino acid phenylalanine can cause irreversible mental retardation unless detected early. With early detection and dietary management, the negative effects of the disease can be broadly eliminated