« The experience of pain in the fœtus and the premature newborn »

For a long time the medical community thought that the newborn was incapable of experiencing pain. However, as it is now universally acknowledged that newborn babies can feel and react to pain, we urgently need to reduce the existing gap between our present state of knowledge and the current practices in the units of neonatology and neonatal intensive care for the prevention and treatment of pain in the newborn
Recent data suggest that repeated and prolonged experience of pain could modify the later development of the sensory system and probably contribute to changes in development and behaviour, long term, in the premature newborn.
The management of pain in the newborn has two objectives: on one hand, to reduce the experience of pain, and on the other, to improve the capacity of the newborn to put up with exposure to pain, while maintaining the optimal relation between benefit/risk of the treatment, whether or not it be through drugs.
The two round table discussions organised at the conference will be concerned with the physiology of pain and its detection and management. Experienced professionals will exchange views on their knowledge and practices.