Methods of recording and interpreting the newborn’s crying
G. Sardescu, C. Popescu- Ialomița, C. Coman, A. Sbârcea, F. Aniculoaie, M.S. Rusu, D.E. Comandașu, E. Brătilă
Rezumat: Crying is the primary method to convey the needs and
desires of the newborns, being their first manifestation.
This study investigated the implementation of a system
for the automatic collection and identification of the
newborn’s crying, thus relying on automatic association
with their physical needs. The study sought to develop a
database of information about the needs of newborns
expressed by crying. After the analysis of the literature,
the study team identified 6 physiological types of crying,
corresponding to different needs and the pathological
crying. The underlying causes of physiological crying
are hunger, pain, eructation, sleep, minor discomfort
and colics. Pathological crying is associated with
an abnormal condition of the newborn. The crying
of the newborns was acquired after obtaining the
informed consent of the parents’ participation in the
maternity and/or at home. The study had two stages:
the collection of the cries and testing in the real world.
The collection of the sound signals corresponding to the
newborn language consisted in the proper collection of
sounds and the labeling of the data. Labeling of data
took place in the maternity during the recording of
the newborn’s crying. Labeling of the data acquired at
home consisted of a double validation, namely: viewing
the newborn and correlating with the home journal,
and validating the records compared to the Dunstan
crying types. The testing in the real world consisted in
acquisition of newborn cryings and the data labelling
took place in the maternity in the similar condition
of the first stage and the data acquired at home were
labelled comparing to the Dunstan crying types. The
most important source of limitation of the study was
obtaining informed consent from parents for the study
participation agreement, which was positive for 39%
of eligible newborns. Most opted for maternity study,
as home registration involved an additional request
for mothers (88% of those involved), only 12% (of
those involved) giving their maternity and home leave.
As main conclusion of the study we can state that a
significant number of subjects were included in the
study for a coherent statistical analysis. A database was
created for all 7 types of complaints, varying according
to need and place of acquisition. This database can
be a source of information for further studies. Cuvinte cheie: newborn crying, acquisition and
interpretation methodology, automatic detection.