The Newborn

The book aims to provide basic and essential information about babies for doctors and nurses involved in their care.

Since it assumes no great familiarity with infants, and deals with normal babies as well as common problems, it is also suitable reading for medical and nursing students.

In this book, the emphasis is placed on the value of getting to know the specific peculiarities of the newborn as a basis for assessment, diagnosis and management, rather than simply transferring acquired medical and nursing knowledge from other patient groups.

Approximately one third of the text therefore is devoted to a description of the physical and behavioural characteristics of newborn babies, how to examine them and the common, minor variations from the normal which often cause difficulty to the uninitiated.

Throughout the book, the need for good communication with parents is stressed, and the development of the parent/infant relationship is discussed in some depth.