Managing pain in newborns: A multidimensional approach
Marsha Campbell-Yeo NNP-BC, Timothy Disher, Souvik Mitra
Abstract
Preventing and managing an infant's pain effectively is an essential component of newborn care. Experiencing untreated pain in early life has been associated with immediate negative effects and long-term adverse outcomes affecting physiological stability, pain processing and neurodevelopment. Inadequate pain management during medical procedures is consistently reported by parents as one of the most stressful aspects of having a baby. Despite known ways to effectively manage infant pain, these interventions remain underutilized in clinical practice. To ensure optimal outcomes, health care facilities should establish organization-wide pain management frameworks, with dedicated resources that include: comprehensive training for care providers, implementing pain prevention and control strategies, and quality improvement measures to minimize the number of painful procedures, assess and reassess pain appropriately, reduce procedural and surgery-related pain, and actively engage parents in shared decision-making and pain care.