Managing Neonatal Jaundice at Home
Published: 01 July 2020
Published: 01 July 2020
Bilirubin levels were found to decrease just as rapidly in the home-based group as those treated in hospital, proving that home phototherapy can be a safe and effective alternative to hospital-based treatment (Eggert, Pollary, Folland and Jung 1985).
Despite these encouraging results, home-based care wasn’t routinely offered. Today, however, home-based phototherapy is once again emerging as a popular option for jaundiced infants who are otherwise healthy and who have motivated, capable parents.
Given the benefits of home-based management, Malwade and Jardine (2014) ask the all-important question: ‘When is home-based phototherapy considered safe and appropriate?’
The obvious answer is that only cases of uncomplicated, mild to moderate physiological jaundice should be considered, but this would still include a large number of babies who would benefit from early discharge and improved bonding with their parents.
To help clarify this answer many hospitals have drawn up specific criteria to be followed. For example, guidelines created by the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE 2015) recommend that all cases are reviewed by a paediatrician before any treatment starts and referred only if they meet safety criteria. Nursing management for home-based therapy usually includes visiting up to three times per day to monitor and assess the baby’s wellbeing and take blood for testing.
The baby should:
Parents should be:
(QLD DoH 2019)
Not all cases of neonatal jaundice are suitable for home based-treatment. For example, the following criteria would preclude home treatment:
(QLD DoH 2019)
NICE (2015) also offers the following guidelines for more serious cases that require emergency admission to a neonatal or paediatric unit:
Medical assessment should also be arranged within six hours in the following circumstances:
Today, home-based phototherapy delivered by Light Emitting Diode (LED) phototherapy blankets is re-emerging as a popular option for home-based treatment. These blankets wrap around the baby for a prescribed length of time and allow them to be held, cuddled and fed as they normally would.
Using Intensive Light LED Blanket phototherapy during feeding also helps to prevent interruption of intensive phototherapy for feeding and bonding purposes (NHS England 2018).
Walls (2004) reports that following a brief training session on the use of equipment, feeding, skin care and temperature control, the majority of parents and community midwives seem happy with home-based care and report positive results.
As with many medical innovations, although the evidence supporting home phototherapy is increasing, there is still a lack of good quality research to either support or refute treatment at home (Snook 2017).
A recent Cochrane review compared home-based phototherapy with hospital-based phototherapy for uncomplicated jaundice in full-term newborns, yet found no studies that met the eligibility criteria and concluded that there is currently insufficient high-quality evidence to either support or refute the use of home phototherapy for uncomplicated newborn jaundice (Malwade & Jardine 2014).
Increasing pressures on limited resources often result in innovation and the search for more cost-effective ways of delivering a service. Home-based phototherapy is a good example of this.
Hospital at home services allow resources to be used in a more effective way, cutting the costs of in-patient care and improving user satisfaction (NHS England 2018). For example, home-based phototherapy can result in:
(NHS England 2018)
Jackson, Tudehope and Willis (2000) reported on 32 babies with uncomplicated physiological jaundice who received phototherapy at home. All babies showed acceptable reductions in their serum bilirubin on home therapy, and none required hospital readmission.
Their families were highly satisfied with the home program and recorded high levels of confidence in their therapeutic responsibilities. The cost of delivering the home program was also significantly less than a comparable hospital stay and easily facilitated by the community midwives.
This is an area where ongoing research is both timely and important, and studies such as the one conducted by Evelina London (2019) are paving the way forward. In this study, babies were considered for home treatment if they had been receiving phototherapy on the postnatal ward for at least 48 hours, had stable or falling bilirubin levels and could feed well.
The parents of these babies were trained to use the biliblanket and an outreach nurse from the neonatal unit visited them daily to test the babies’ bilirubin levels.
Whilst home phototherapy treatment is not yet considered routine, it could benefit many babies, providing the right training and safety measures are in place.
As Walls (2004) says, with appropriate training and enthusiastic community support, treating neonatal jaundice at home appears to be feasible, safe, and well accepted by families and medical staff alike.
Anne is a freelance lecturer and medical writer at Mind Body Ink. She is a former midwife and nurse teacher with over 25 years’ experience working in the fields of healthcare, stress management and medical hypnosis. Her background includes working as a hospital midwife, Critical Care nurse, lecturer in Neonatal Intensive Care, and as a Clinical Nurse Specialist for a company making life support equipment. Anne has also studied many forms of complementary medicine and has extensive experience in the field of clinical hypnosis. She has a special interest in integrating complementary medicine into conventional healthcare settings and is currently an Associate Tutor, lecturing in Health Coaching and Medical Hypnosis at Exeter University in the UK. As a former Midwife, Anne has a natural passion for writing about fertility, pregnancy, birthing and baby care. Her recent publications include The Health Factor, Coach Yourself To Better Health and Positive Thinking For Kids. You can read more about her work at www.MindBodyInk.com. See Educator Profile