The first days with a new baby bring excitement, questions and many new experiences. Newborn screening is one of the routine screenings that are done shortly after birth to help check your baby’s health. These screenings look for certain conditions that may not be visible right away but can benefit from early care and follow-up. This page offers clear information and helpful resources to explain what each screening involves, when it happens and what the results may mean for your family.
What is Newborn Screening?
Newborn screening is done when your baby is 24-48 hours old and is the first step towards a healthy start for your baby as it helps find treatable conditions early, often before anyone notices something is wrong. The screening has three parts: blood spot, hearing and heart screening. Early detection and treatment can help babies live healthier lives.
Blood Spot Screen
A small blood sample is taken from your baby’s heel, placed on a filter card and sent to a special laboratory for testing. This testing helps find health conditions that can affect a baby’s hormones, blood, nervous system, or how they process foods. Finding these conditions early can help prevent serious health problems, disability and even death.
Hearing Screen
Small earphones or ear buds are placed on or in your baby’s ear to see if they can hear or respond to sounds. Finding a hearing loss or deafness early helps babies stay on track with speech, language and communication skills.
Heart Screen
A small sensor placed on your baby’s hand and foot is used to check the amount of oxygen in your baby’s blood. Low levels of oxygen in the blood may be caused by a serious heart problem known as critical congenital heart disease (CCHD). If found early, babies with CCHD can often get help through medical treatments or surgery.
Why is Newborn Screening Important?
A baby can have a condition even if they seem healthy at birth. These conditions may not run in families. Every condition tested for by newborn screening has a treatment. So, finding these conditions early helps babies get the care they need to prevent serious health problems, disability, and even death.
What do the Screening Results Mean?
Blood Spot Screening Results
Results for the blood spot screening should be available by the time your baby is one week old. The results will be sent to the hospital where your baby was born.
- Normal Results: If your baby's screening results are normal (also called negative or in-range), it means the screening did not show signs of a condition and no follow-up is needed.
- Out-of-Range Results: If a result falls outside the expected range (also called abnormal), your baby's provider will contact you as soon as possible to talk about next steps. Needing more testing done does not mean your baby has a condition. It is really important to follow your provider's instructions so your baby can get the best care.
- Borderline Results: If a result falls somewhere in between normal and out-of-range, your baby will need more screening or testing. Your baby's provider will talk to you about next steps.
If you do not receive your baby's blood spot results, be sure to ask about the screening so that you know it was completed.
Hearing Screening Results
You should receive your baby's hearing screening results as soon as the screening is complete.
- Pass: A pass result means that your baby has typical hearing in both ears at the time of screening.
- Fail: A fail result or "refer" in one or both ears means that your baby might be deaf or hard of hearing. Babies with fail results need more testing and typically have a "repeat" hearing screening after discharge. If your baby fails the repeat hearing screening, a referral to audiology is needed. Follow-up with an audiologist, a specialist in hearing problems, as soon as possible.
Finding a hearing loss or deafness early can help babies stay on track with speech, language and communication skills.
Heart Screening Results
Pulse oximetry screening can help find if your child has a critical congenital heart disease (CCHD). You should receive your baby's pulse oximetry (heart) screening results as soon as the screening is complete.
- Pass Results: Your baby had in-range blood oxygen levels at the time of screening and should not need any more testing.
- Fail Results: Your baby had low blood oxygen levels at the time of screening and needs more testing. Not every baby that fails the screening has CCHD. There can be other reasons, like general breathing problems, infections or minor heart problems. Your baby's doctor will typically check your baby over very carefully and order additional testing.
With early detection and treatment, babies with CCHD can live longer and healthier lives!
Parent Quote
We’re so grateful for the newborn hearing screen—it gave us answers we didn’t even know we needed. The screening did not create a diagnosis, it simply helped to discover our son’s diagnosis of hearing loss sooner. Because of early identification, we were able to pursue hearing aids and begin learning sign language as a family and eventually decided to move forward with cochlear implants - all during a crucial window for language development. Today, we have a happy, curious toddler who babbles, giggles, and is learning new words every day in both speech and sign! Early detection gave him (and us) the tools to support his development from the very beginning.
- Mother of a Son with Bilateral Sensorineural Hearing Loss
Find answers to the most common questions about blood spot, hearing or heart screening.