Hospital ward temperature and baby safety

[jmap81]

Super curious as a FTM, many people have said the labour ward is really hot. Why is this when so much of the advice I read is about keeping the baby in spaces of a maximum of 21 degrees? Surely it's somewhat dangerous for the teeny ones to be in rooms that are that hot?

Newborns can't regulate their own body temperature. They've literally just come from living inside you where it's very warm so they need that environment replicated as much as possible to begin with. Not only are the wards roasting but the midwife will wrap the baby up in a blanket too or have them on your chest for skin-to-skin/body heat.

Think about all the babies born all over the world in all the countries were 21 degrees would be considered a bit nippy.

The hospital I work in sometimes reaches 34 degrees in summer. Everyone survives.

Until very recently (and still in much of the world) just-born babies would spend almost all of the time in their mothers arms, warmed by their body heat. We don't do that in the UK for a number of reasons so we need to at least have the hospital wards be warm and wrap them up.

Because newborn babies come out wet.

Think about getting out of the bath or shower into a cold room vs a warm room.

It's important to keep newborns warm as if they get cold they can also drop their blood sugars.

Neonates are born small, and wet. The large body surface area to volume ratio makes them get cold easily. Being wet makes them get cold easily. Being used to being surrounded by body temperature makes them get cold easily. If the delivery has been difficult, and the baby has used up their energy stores, they get cold easily. If neonates get cold they drop their sugars. If neonates get cold it can reduce the production of surfactant, which is designed to keep their lungs expanded. So they can develop breathing difficulties. If neonates get cold their circulation can flip back into the in utero model of bypassing the lungs, so they can drop there oxygen levels.

Over the years, I have seen many neonates become poorly due to having been let get cold. I haven't seen a single neonate become poorly due to having been let get too warm.

Please note, all the above is talking about those first hours. As they get used to maintaining temperature, things change.

I live in the Caribbean and both my boys were born here. Babies need heat.
I remember DS2 coming out and he was so hot it was like hers been in a bath.
Our babies wore hats in the hospital and it was 82oc. I wouldn’t worry about maternity wards being too warm.

Similarly our house is “cooled” to 80oF. They were swaddled in a pamper and miracle blanket, maybe a short sleeved onesie at a push.

When my dd was born in the summer one midwife kept telling us to close the windows in the morning and evening to keep the warmth in as babies need tropical temperatures!! It was soo uncomfortable

I'm a paediatric nurse and have queried this with estates as the temperature is usually around 28oc on my ward. They didn't do anything about it 😬

Having spent a lot of time on labour wards and obstetric theatres especially at 2am, most of them are freezing (and the heaters don't work).
Mum's think they're hot, because labour is like running a marathon/doing big exercise and then they have loads of hormones floating around all of which make them hot. But they really aren't.
Babies would be a lot safer in the many I worked in increased their heat substantially.

On the opposite end of the scale, I once gave birth at home in winter in a house without heating or hot water! We were fine…

@negomi90

Having spent a lot of time on labour wards and obstetric theatres especially at 2am, most of them are freezing (and the heaters don't work). Mum's think they're hot, because labour is like running a marathon/doing big exercise and then they have loads of hormones floating around all of which make them hot. But they really aren't. Babies would be a lot safer in the many I worked in increased their heat substantially.

God, yes. Labour ward theatres are freezing. The number of times I go to a preterm delivery and have to whack up the thermostat and close the window.

The hospital i had my LO in is an old building that has single glazed windows, it was frezzing, i was put in a bay next to the window and the midwifes kept going on about how LO was struggling to maintain his temprature, he was on a heat mat and i was told not to pick him up unless he needed feeding or changing