Early Postnatal Heart Rate Variability in Healthy Newborn Infants

Despite the increasing interest in fetal and neonatal heart rate variability (HRV) analysis and its potential use as a tool for early disease stratification, no studies have previously described the normal trends of HRV in healthy babies during the first hours of postnatal life.We prospectively recruited 150 healthy babies from the postnatal ward and continuously recorded their electrocardiogram during the first 24 h after birth. Babies were...