Te whakamātau poka rekereke — he whakamātau i te whakarau pūngao o te pēpi hou Heel prick test — newborn metabolic screening

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These babies all look healthy and well.

Most babies in New Zealand are born healthy,

develop well, and grow into strong and healthy children.

However, there are some rare and very serious

disorders that can affect the health and well-being of babies

and young children.

Doctors and midwives cannot detect some of these disorders

when they examine babies, but they can be identified

if the baby's blood is tested in a laboratory.

New Zealand and many other countries

routinely screens newborn babies using a heel prick blood test.

With the parents' consent, a small sample of blood

is taken from the baby when they're 48 hours old

and screened for these rare, but serious, disorders.

The heel prick test is not compulsory, but over 99%

of babies born in New Zealand have the test.

That's around 60,000 babies a year.

Each year screening identifies around 40 newborns

with specific disorders that need immediate treatment.

This treatment could involve special diets for the growing

child, or the baby being given medicine.

Even though these disorders are rare,

for the 40 babies a year who are identified through the program,

if treatment is not started when the baby is very small,

their health and well-being can be very seriously affected.

Without early treatment permanent damage

to the child's health occurs, and the growing child

could become disabled or have a less chance of living

to be a healthy adult.

During your pregnancy your lead maternity carer

will discuss the heel prick test with you.

How you doing?

Counting down the days.

Not long to go now.

Just come to talk about the heel prick

that we do at 48 hours, or as soon as possible afterwards.

That's great.

Is that all right?

Let's sit.

Thanks.

I'm just going to talk about the heel prick.

And we do that in the hospital, or if you're at home

I'll do it in your home.

OK.

Now we just need some blood from baby's heel.

They're not that impressed about it,

but it's only a small amount that we take and it's

quite quick.

It goes to Auckland to the National Testing Center.

Now have you got any questions?

So what are they actually testing for?

They're testing for over 20 metabolic disorders.

I'll give a handout to read that will

explain about the disorders that we're testing for.

Within six hours of baby's birth,

you'll lead maternity carer will discuss the heel prick

test with you again.

Congratulations on your lovely girl.

Thank you.

And you're happy with us doing that heel prick?

Yes.

Great.

So you know that's to be done 48 hours after baby is born?

It's a little pin prick, so it will

be-- she won't be that impressed about having it done,

but it's very quick.

Won't hurt her?

Only for a really short time.

OK.

When baby's 48 hours old, or as soon as possible thereafter,

the lead maternity carer completes the heal prick test.

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OK.

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[BABY WHIMPERS]

Sometimes it can be a little more difficult to obtain

the baby's blood sample, and the lead maternity carer

may need to prick the baby's heel again to get enough blood.

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It's stopped bleeding now, so just put that pressure on there

so it's good [INAUDIBLE].

She wasn't too upset.

No, she wasn't too upset.

All right.

Really just squealed a bit [INAUDIBLE].

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The specimen is sent here to the National Testing

Center for testing.

Thanks to the Starship Foundation,

we now have the tandem mass spectrometer

on which we test for 20 plus disorders

on a single spot of blood.

This is one of the many ways that we

test blood for too little or too much of the components

or the [INAUDIBLE] enzymes which can be indicative of one

of these disorders.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

For most families providing the blood sample

is the end of the heel prick test.

Hi, Karen.

How you doing?

We're doing good, thanks.

And how's the feeding going?

Well, it's going much better than the last time.

If you do not hear anything about the test

from your lead maternity carer, your baby

did not test positive for the disorders that are tested for.

Sometimes your lead maternity carer

could ask if they could do a second test.

This second test is needed in about 1 in 100 babies.

In many cases the second test is done

because there was a problem with the way the first sample was

taken or processed.

If the testing does show that your baby has a health problem,

then your lead maternity carer and your doctor

will contact you to discuss the disorder and the next steps.

OK.

Everything is looking good, so we will say you and [? Kyata ?]

next Tuesday.

If you need anything in the meantime, just give us a call.

Will do.

Thank you.

OK.

See you later, [? Kyata. ?]

Thanks, Chris.

OK.

See you later.