title: Time of passage of First Stool in Newborns in a Tertiary Health Facility in Southern Nigeria.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The first stool passed by the newborn, the meconium, is different from the ordinary stool both in its nature and its implication. Delayed or non-passage of the meconium may represent a number of clinical conditions. In this study, we sought to identify what should be considered delayed passage of meconium in our babies.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the timing of passage of first stool in Nigerian neonates and whether it is influenced by gender, birth weight, maternal age, and parity.
  
  
  METHODS
  A PROFORMA WAS DESIGNED TO OBTAIN THE FOLLOWING DATA: Maternal age, parity, mode of delivery, Apgar score at 1 min, birth weight, gender, and interval between delivery and passage of first stool among normal newborn babies delivered at the obstetrics department of our center in August and September 2010.
  
  
  RESULTS
  One hundred babies out of 393 delivered during the period of the study were included in the study. There were 63 (63%) males and 37 (37%) females. The interval between delivery and passage of meconium ranged from 0.5 to 54 h; mean, 16.2 (SD = 10.57). This was not influenced by gender, weight, maternal age, and parity.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Non-passage of meconium beyond 48 h of life could be considered delayed. We therefore, recommend that clinicians should re-evaluate newborns, for hitherto unrecognized conditions, if after 48 h they have not passed first stool.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria.
authors.forename: Philemon E
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Okoro
authors.forename: Cosmos E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Enyindah
keywords: First stool; meconium; nigerian newborns; timing
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