Heel lance in newborn during breastfeeding: an evaluation of analgesic effect of this procedure.
OBJECTIVE
The reduction of pain due to routine invasive procedures (capillary heel stick blood sampling for neonatal metabolic screening) in the newborn is an important objective for the so-called "Hospital with no pain". Practices such as skin to skin contact, or breastfeeding, in healthy newborn, may represent an alternative to the use of analgesic drugs. The aim of our work is to evaluate the analgesic effect of breastfeeding during heel puncture in full term healthy newborn.


METHODS
We studied 200 healthy full term newborns (100 cases and 100 controls), proposing the puncture to mothers during breastfeeding, and explaining to them all the advantages of this practice. Pain assessment was evaluated by DAN scale (Douleur Aigue Nouveau ne scale).


RESULTS
The difference in score of pain according to the DAN scale was significant in the two groups of patients (p = 0.000); the medium score was 5.15 for controls and 2.65 for cases (newborns sampled during breastfeeding).


CONCLUSIONS
Our results confirmed the evidence of analgesic effect of breastfeeding during heel puncture. This procedure could easily be adopted routinely in maternity wards.
Uga
Elena
E
Department of Paediatrics, S, Andrea Hospital-ASL VC, Vercelli, Italy. elena.uga990@gmail.com.
Candriella
Manuela
M
Perino
Antonella
A
Alloni
Viviana
V
Angilella
Giuseppina
G
Trada
Michela
M
Ziliotto
Anna Maria
AM
Rossi
Maura Barbara
MB
Tozzini
Danila
D
Tripaldi
Clelia
C
Vaglio
Michela
M
Grossi
Luigina
L
Allen
Michaela
M
Provera
Sandro
S