Assessing the Baby: Colour

Acrocyanosis

With acrocyanosis, the baby’s hands and feet are blue. This is normal right after birth. In fact, most newborns have some acrocyanosis for their first few hours of life. It happens because blood and oxygen are circulating to the brain, lungs, and kidneys rather than to the hands and feet. This usually resolves as the baby’s body gets used to new blood circulation patterns.

Colour is not an accurate method to determine oxygenation, nor is this reliable when assessing improvements during resuscitation. However, colour is a useful method to aid to the assessment of the overall newborn wellbeing as babies born with acidosis or significant blood loss will appear pale at birth as opposed to the typical ‘blue’ colouring. Therefore colour is assessed on the first assessment, but is not reviewed again.