Jaundice Meters - A Boon For Community Midwives

Community midwives on follow-up visits to new mothers will routinely check that baby is not jaundiced. It has been estimated that jaundice affects abut 60% of newborns.

^{What is Jaundice?}
Often jaundice is mild and goes away without treatment. Jaundice is indicated by a yellow discolouration of the skin and whites of the eyes, caused by the accumulation of bilirubin. In healthy newborns with physiological jaundice the bilirubin is broken down in the liver and excreted, and is not an indicator of an underlying disease. However, pathological neonatal jaundice can be caused by a number of factors including poor liver function, and should be quickly investigated. Chronic bilirubin encephalopathy can lead to neurological complications from cerebral palsy and seizures to developmental delay and learning difficulties. Neonates with features of bilirubin encephalopathy should be admitted to hospital as an emergency as they may require a blood transfusion. This is why early checking is so important.

Taking Blood Samples
Until recently, jaundice checks involved the mother taking baby to the hospital outpatients clinic. This can be expensive for the mother in terms of travel costs and in disrupting baby’s routines and is expensive in hospital time.
Community midwives can check bilirubin levels at baby’s home, involving taking a small sample of blood from a heel prick and then needing to transport the sample quickly to the nearest hospital. This wastes the midwife’s time, incurs travel costs and disrupts planned calls for later in the day.

Blood Not Required!
The new BM-100 series of transcutaneous meters are extremely easy to use and offer an immediate answer abou the trend in bilirubin levels. The results given by this meter correlate very well with laboratory results, meaning that the midwife does not need to spend time taking blood samples to the hospital. If there is an undesired trend in the readings then, of course, the baby does need to go to hospital. A big bonus is that the BM-100 meter requires no heel prick, so avoiding upset to babies and mothers.

Clear Results
The BM-100 meters are compact, hand held and battery operated with results immediately displayed in clear large digits on the integral colour screen. The meter stores the results and up to 2,000 readings can be taken before the meter needs recharging. Model BM100C also has a bar code reader for baby and nurse identification and a USB port for downloading the data.

Always Avaiable
Benefiting from the calibration device housed in the charging base, the BC-100 meters do not need to be sent away for routine calibration, meaning that they are always available and ready for use.