TEMPERATURE REGULATION (THERMOREGULATION)

Maintain Body Temperature

Maintain appropriate Body Temperature. Chilling will increase the body’s need for O2. The newborn suffers large losses of heat (cold stress) because he is wet at birth, the delivery room is cold, he does not have enough adipose tissue and does not know how to shiver.

You need to do nursing interventions such as:

• Wrap the newborn immediately
• Wrap him warmly
• Put him under a droplight

The newborn suffers large losses of body heat (cold stress) because he is wet at birth; the delivery room is cold; he does not have enough subcutaneous fats/adipose tissues; shivering mechanism is not functioning; thermoregulatory center is underdeveloped.

EFFECTS OF COLD STRESS

METABOLIC ACTIVITIES - One of the ways by which heat is produced in the newborn is by increasing metabolism. When this occurs, fatty acids accumulate because of the breakdown of brown fats (seen only in newborns).

HYPOGLYCEMIA - due to the use of glucose as glycogen.

Take the temperature - at birth is 37.2˚C or 99˚F, but because of evaporation from the moist skin and the cool delivery room, it will drop to 35.5 – 36.5˚C, it will stabilize within 8 hours and must be maintained at 36.5-37.2˚C so as to prevent hypoglycemia and acidosis due to hypothermia.