Dear Debra and colleagues on jiscmail,

I am finding this discussion really intriguing – I have recently returned to clinical practice after 10 years. I remember the day of birth being exactly as Debra says is used to be below (day 1 if birth before midday etc) and I’d carried on doing that – I asked midwife colleagues if this was still the case and didn’t find any consensus about this, and I hadn’t realised it had formally changed in the interim. I wonder why midwives number days in this way – it seems a bit odd, and not too helpful for observing newborn adaptations in relation to breastfeeding or jaundice levels. Wouldn’t it be better to think in terms of how many hours old the baby is?

Kirstie Coxon (UK)

From: A forum for discussion on midwifery and reproductive health research. [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Debra Kroll
Sent: 14 January 2014 14:15
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: day of birth: postnatal day 1 or 0?

In the UK the day of birth is always Day 0 . It used to be day 1 if birth was before 12midday and day 0 if after 12 midday  and before midnight. I believe it changed for 2 reasons the first to do with IT systems and the second was when the timing for the newborn blood spot screening became important . Debra Kroll community midwife clinical lead 

On Tuesday, 14 January 2014, Paula wrote:

How does each country define the day of birth? As postnatal day 1 or 0? Or does this, for example, depend on the time of the day the child was born? In The Netherlands, day one is defined as the day of birth. Althought I have heard that this may depend on the time of the day (day 0 when born after 7 pm). So for example, if a child has a (postnatal) age 4, how old is this child? Three (i.e. approximately 72 hours) or four days (i.e. approximately 96 hours) old?

--

Debra Kroll

Midwife (UCLH)