Related Experiment Video
Updated: Dec 28, 2025
Assessment and Evaluation of the High Risk Neonate: The NICU Network Neurobehavioral Scale
Published on: August 25, 2014
Evaluation of Maternal Risk Factors in Neonatal Hyperbilirubinemia
Hassan Boskabadi1, Forough Rakhshanizadeh1, Maryam Zakerihamidi2
1Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.
Insights
Identifying maternal risk factors is crucial for preventing neonatal jaundice. This review highlights factors like hypertension, diabetes, and delivery complications that increase infant hyperbilirubinemia risk.
Area of Science:
- Neonatal Medicine
- Public Health
- Obstetrics
Background:
- Neonatal jaundice and its pathological complications pose significant clinical challenges.
- Identifying predisposing factors is the primary step in preventing severe neonatal hyperbilirubinemia.
- Maternal factors significantly influence the incidence of neonatal hyperbilirubinemia.
Purpose of the Study:
- To systematically review and identify maternal risk factors associated with neonatal hyperbilirubinemia.
- To consolidate evidence on maternal contributions to infant jaundice for improved prevention strategies.
Main Methods:
- A systematic literature search was conducted across major databases (PubMed, Google Scholar, etc.) from 1993 to 2017.
- Inclusion criteria focused on studies examining maternal factors in neonatal jaundice, excluding treatment-focused articles.
- Seventeen relevant articles were analyzed, encompassing various study designs (prospective, retrospective, cross-sectional, cohort).
Main Results:
- Key maternal risk factors identified include hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and preeclampsia.
- Delivery-related issues such as type of delivery, bleeding, and premature rupture of membranes (PROM) were significant.
- Infant feeding practices, including delayed initiation and breastfeeding challenges, emerged as critical factors.
Conclusions:
- Maternal conditions like hypertension, diabetes, and preeclampsia are strongly linked to neonatal jaundice.
- Delivery complications and suboptimal breastfeeding practices are significant contributors to infant hyperbilirubinemia.
- Understanding and addressing these maternal risk factors are essential for effective neonatal jaundice prevention.
Background:
Diagnosis and timely treatment of neonatal jaundice and prevention of dangerous side effects of pathologic neonatal jaundice remain a serious debate. The first step in prevention of jaundice is the identification of predisposing factors. The present study aims to systematically review the maternal risk factors of neonatal hyperbilirubinemia.
Methods:
For this study, we searched databases including Science Direct, Cochrane Library, ISI, PubMed and Google Scholar from 1993 to 2017. The keywords searched based on MESH included hyperbilirubinemia, jaundice, infants, mothers and risk factors. The present systematic review was conducted on studies reporting maternal risk factors for neonatal jaundice. The inclusion criteria were: study on neonates; examination of maternal factors or both maternal and neonatal factors. Papers associated with the diagnosis and treatment of neonatal jaundice were excluded from the study, as well as those articles for which only abstracts were available. The limitations of this study include lack of access to all relevant articles, lack of qualified reports in some papers, and the limitation in number of articles related to maternal risk factors, and therefore inability to judge accurately about their effects on neonatal jaundice.
Results:
Of 500 searched articles, 17 articles (1 prospective article, 2 retrospective papers, 12 cross-sectional papers and 2 historical cohort articles) were finally investigated. Maternal risk factors included hypertension, diabetes, type of delivery, vaginal bleeding, premature rupture of membranes (PROM), maternal age, lack of initiation of feeding during the first hours of life, inappropriate breastfeeding techniques and presence of maternal breast problems.
Conclusion:
The most common maternal risk factors for neonatal jaundice were prematurity, blood type incompatibilities, preeclampsia, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, vaginal bleeding, delivery problems (type of delivery, labor injuries, delivery at home, skin ecchymosis, and cephalohematoma), mothers and community cultural beliefs (use of traditional supplements), breast problems, and decrease in breastfeeding.
Related Concept Videos
01:24Pharmacokinetics in Pediatric Patients: Drug Metabolism
01:22Effect of Hepatic Disease on Pharmacokinetics: Pathophysiologic Assessment and Liver Function Test