This prospective cross-sectional study was undertaken to determine the frequency of procedural pain among 101 neonates in the first 14 days of admission to a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) in South India and to study the perception of health-care professionals (HCP) about newborn procedural pain. The total number of painful procedures was 8.09 ± 5.53 per baby per day and 68.32 ± 64.78 per baby during hospital stay. The most common procedure was heel prick (30%). The HCP were administered a questionnaire to assess their perception of pain for various procedures. Procedures were perceived as more painful by nurses than by doctors. Chest tube placements and lumbar puncture were considered most painful. This study shows that the neonates in the NICU in developing countries experience many painful procedures. The awareness about this intensity of pain should provide a valuable tool in formulating pain-reduction protocols for management in low resource settings.

Oral EBM significantly reduces pain during and after ROP screening.

Delaying the cord clamping by 2 min, significantly improves the hematocrit value at birth and this beneficial effect continues till at least 2nd mo of life.

Probiotic supplementation does not seem to result in significant improvement of feed tolerance in VLBW newborns.

EBM significantly reduces procedural pain in neonates though to a lesser extent as compared to 25% dextrose.