A prospective study of temperature drop in 141 normal term newborn infants delivered vaginally at the labour ward, University Hospital, Kuala Lumpur were studied. The effect of various manoeuvres on the temperature drop were also studied. They were randomized into 3 study groups, 63 cases where the babies were wiped with dry cloth alone, 37 cases where the babies were put into a plastic bag immediately after birth and lastly 41 cases where the babies were wiped with dry cloth and then inserted into a plastic bag. There was significant temperature drop in all the 3 groups maximum in the first 15 minutes and the fall continued for 1 hour after delivery (p less than 0.001). This shows that in an air-conditioned labour ward in a tropical country the temperature fall in newborn infants can be significant. This study also showed that plastic is a poor insulator against significant temperature drop.
Early identification of a syndrome at birth is of paramount importance for genetic counselling and possible prevention. Often malformation of the hands and fingers are cardinal manifestations of recognizable syndromes. As there are no published standards for hand and finger size for Malay newborn infants, this study was undertaken to establish normal values for hand, middle finger and palmar lengths, and their indices. A cross-sectional study was done on 509 consecutive newborn Malay babies between 34 and 42 weeks of gestation. Measurements were made on the right hand according to the recommended guidelines of Bergsma & Feingold (1975). The mean values for the measurements did not differ significantly between boys and girls, or change with gestation. For the whole group the mean value for total hand length was 64.4 +/- 3.42 mm, middle finger length 37.1 +/- 2.91 mm, palmar length 27.4 +/- 2.15 mm, finger index 0.425 +/- 0.03 and palmar index 0.58 +/- 0.03. A comparison with published measurements for newborns of different racial origin shows significant differences for the total hand length, middle finger length and palm length from Indian and Jewish infants, but not from Japanese infants. The indices were similar in Malay, Indian, Jewish and Japanese newborn infants.