# Care of the newborn in the first days

Care topic · id `maternal:essential-newborn-care` · Maternal & Newborn Atlas · release `fc5a600ec7387e71` (public)

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Also called: Newborn care; Routine newborn care

Browse, life stage: Newborn  
Browse, care area: Newborn care  

## In plain language

The routine care a baby gets after birth and in the first days: keeping warm, feeding, skin-to-skin contact, screening tests and a vitamin K shot. This page links to the page about each one.

## Technical summary

Hub for the term-newborn pages in this atlas: thermal care, skin-to-skin care, resuscitation, jaundice, screening, vitamin K, low blood sugar and cooling for brain injury after birth. The MedlinePlus Infant and Newborn Care topic, used as the plain-language entry point, says newborns have many needs, such as frequent feedings and diaper changes, and that babies can have health issues that differ from those of older children and adults. It sets out no schedule of checks. This page makes no clinical claim.

## Connected pages

- Filed under this front: Newborn support: warmth, breathing, feeding (`maternal:front-newborn-support`)
- Related care page: keeping a newborn warm: Newborn thermal care (`maternal:newborn-thermal-care`)
- Related care page: skin-to-skin care: Kangaroo mother care (KMC) (`maternal:kangaroo-mother-care`)
- Includes: Newborn screening (`maternal:newborn-screening`)
- Related to: Early-onset newborn sepsis (`maternal:early-onset-neonatal-sepsis`)
- Related to: Newborn jaundice (hyperbilirubinaemia) (`maternal:neonatal-jaundice`)
- Related to: Newborn resuscitation (help with breathing at birth) (`maternal:neonatal-resuscitation`)
- Related to: Vitamin K at birth (`maternal:vitamin-k-prophylaxis`)

## Provenance

Content hash: 2f6a6cea654972c16acc7f7dd92099fe36850cb0847ba578c1f85c3b51eb2857
Last substantive edit: 2026-10-14
Evidence last checked: Not recorded