EFFECT OF TRADITIONAL APPROACH ON JAUNDICE IN PREGNANCY, ITS RISK FACTOR & NEONATAL JAUNDICE

Abstract

Hyperbilirubinemia is a common disease that occurs especially in the first week of birth and is one of the most common causes of hospitalisation of the term and preterm infants in neonatal hospitals. It usually occurs on the second day of birth and is not usually harmful, and a self-limiting condition, where disease usually improves without treatment after reaching the normal amount of bilirubin but very high levels of bilirubin may lead to kernicterus as permanent brain damage. Several types of Bilirubinemia have been reported in neonates including physiological jaundice, pathological jaundice, jaundice due to breastfeeding or breast milk and hemolytic jaundice including three subtypes due to Rh factor incompatibility. Mothball use, a possible trigger for hemolysis in newborns with G6PD deficiency, was reported by 43 mothers (4%). Families commonly avoided exposure of their newborns to direct sunlight (88%) and kept their newborns in dark rooms during the first 7 days (77%). The old Chinese literature also had very detailed and accurate description of the clinical features of kernicterus. Herbal medicine has been used to treat NNJ for a long time, and is still practiced in some parts of China up to the recent decades. The infants were, however, at the same time treated with a variety of other herbs or herbal combinations, as well as western medicine including steroids, plasma, phototherapy, phenobarbitone, and exchange transfusion.

Keywords: Neonatal Jaundice, Pregnancy, Risk Factors, Traditional Approach, Bilirubin, Kernicterus