Some babies are born after being exposed to opioid medicines or drugs during pregnancy, and a few days later may show signs of withdrawal. Three new studies looked at which babies end up needing medicine, how much weight these babies lose in their first two weeks, and whether hospital care changed…

When a sick or very small newborn cannot breathe well alone, doctors may place a breathing tube. Research shows that using a camera-equipped instrument makes the first try more likely to work, and gentle breathing help through the nose probably does too. Most babies now get medicine beforehand…

In late 2025, three expert groups in North America, Europe, and Australia and New Zealand each updated their advice for helping babies who need extra help right after birth. Two research teams then compared those documents and found that they agree on the big things and differ mainly on small…

When a newborn does not start breathing well, the most important thing the team can do is to give gentle breaths with a mask and a bag or a special device. Two new studies tested whether practising on dummy babies that give feedback, such as showing how much air is going in or how much is leaking…

Babies born very early often need extra oxygen, and their care team chooses a target range for how much oxygen their blood should carry. A slightly higher range saves some lives, but a few more babies then need treatment for an eye disease of prematurity. Two 2026 studies, a US computer model and a…

Some babies are short of oxygen around the time of birth, and this can injure the brain. Cooling the baby for three days is the standard treatment, and doctors hoped that adding a medicine called erythropoietin would help even more babies. A trial of 313 babies in Australia, New Zealand and…

Many babies born very early have a small blood vessel near the heart, called the ductus arteriosus, that has not closed yet. Doctors do not fully agree on when to treat it, so a research team asked children's hospital newborn units to share their written plans. The plans share a general approach…

Two new studies suggest that medicines meant to reduce stomach acid in premature babies have never been properly proven to help them, and that neonatal teams are already using them less often and for shorter periods. Doctors are still unsure whether these medicines are harmful, which is why many…

A stroke can happen to a baby around the time of birth, though it is rare and often hard to spot. A new 2026 Chinese guideline sets out how doctors should find and treat the most common type, and a 2025 study of 124 babies in one Wuhan hospital compares strokes caused by blocked and by bleeding…

A large 2026 Swedish study followed 4,970 babies born between 22 and 31 weeks of pregnancy and asked whether spending more days under phototherapy lights for jaundice made the babies more likely to die in the following weeks. It found that it did not: babies treated for six to seven days were no…

Large studies of pregnant women who took paracetamol (called acetaminophen in the United States) show a very small link with autism and ADHD in their children, but that link disappears when children are compared with their own brothers and sisters. A 2025 review also found that many earlier…

Many premature babies develop jaundice, and doctors must decide when it needs treatment with special lights. Three new New Jersey studies found that a skin scanner tracks blood-test results fairly well in preterm babies but is not accurate enough to decide treatment alone, that early bilirubin…