Nursing Care Plan for Perinatal Asphyxia
NCP - Nursing Care Plan for Perinatal Asphyxia Perinatal asphyxia or neonatal asphyxia is the medical condition resulting from deprivation of oxygen to a newborn infant that lasts long enough during the birth process to cause physical harm, usually to the brain. Hypoxic damage can occur to most of the infant's organs (heart, lungs, liver, gut, kidneys), but brain damage is of most concern and perhaps the least likely to quickly or completely heal. In the more pronounced cases, an infant will survive, but with damage to the brain manifested as either mental, such as developmental delay or intellectual disability, or physical, such as spasticity — in fact, spastic diplegia and the other forms of cerebral palsy almost always feature asphyxiation during the birth process as a major, if not defining, factor. Nursing Assessment for Perinatal Asphyxia Physical Examination Respiratory system Low Apgar scores Breathing shallow, irregular, tachypnea Snoring, breathing nostrils, retracted s...