Pain Assessment in the Newborn

O the last several decades, there has been an increased awareness of the importance of assessing and managing pain in hospitalized newborns. One only has to spend time in the NICU to observe how frequently newborns encounter postoperative, procedural, and disease-related pain throughout their hospital stay. Although neonates cannot specifically communicate pain, they do display physiologic and behavioral cues that caregivers can use as objective and valid indicators of the infant’s pain experience.1 Caregivers must know the potential causes of pain and use a high index of suspicion when gauging the infant’s response cues for the presence, absence, or intensity of pain.2,3 The assessment of the infant’s response cues is an essential first step to optimally addressing the infant’s pain.