Ideal time for home visits to newborns: an integrative review.

This study aimed to analyze in the scientific production in online journals regarding the ideal time to conduct home visits (HVs) to newborns (NBs) in their first week of life, and the difficulties in doing so due to the lack of a consensus around the subject. This is an integrative review based on data available on the MEDLINE, BVS, Web of Science and PubMed databases. Eight studies published between 2010 and 2015 were identified. The thematic analysis evidenced two topics, namely, the ideal time for the first home visit to the newborn, and difficulties in implementing the home visit to the newborn in the first week of life. The results suggest that the first visits should take place in the first week of life, especially within the second day after birth. However, some impediments to the realization of the home visit are found, such as geographical barrier, poor quality of care delivered by professionals, low number of notifications of mother-baby binomial hospital discharge, and mothers' lack of knowledge about the relevance of postnatal care. All this can impair the performance of health professionals, and requires investing in their professional qualification and service infrastructure.