Newborn Hearing Screening Programme
Organisation/Service Details
Organisation Details
Description of activity
The early identification of hearing loss is known to be important for a child’s development. One to two babies in every 1,000 are born with a hearing loss in one or both ears. Most of these babies are born into families with no history of hearing loss.
The NHS Newborn Hearing Screening Programme aims to identify all children born with moderate to profound permanent bilateral deafness within 4-5 weeks of birth and to ensure the provision of safe, high quality age appropriate assessments and world class support of deaf children and their families.
Your baby will be offered the hearing screen within the first few weeks of their life. The hearing screen is usually done before you leave the maternity unit. Screening is also carried out in designated community clinics for babies who have missed the hospital screen for any reason.
Parents are given the results at the time of the screen and if necessary an immediate onward referral is made to Audiology.