Neonatal Pain Suffering, Pain, and Risk of Brain Damage in the Fetus and Newborn

For many years we have been talking about a very special patient, the embryo; and the numerous and encouraging successes brought about by embryofetal medicine in the application of both noninvasive therapies and invasive ultrasound-guided tre- ment are well known. On the other hand, it is more and more often the case today that the small patients in neonatal care are premature babies who have come to the world at a particul- ly low gestational age. This allows us to observe the continuity between the ph- es of growth inside the maternal uterus and after birth, which arrives at the correct moment for some lucky fetuses, for others very early, and for some altogether too soon. The neonatologists have the arduous task of sustaining these little patients in their strivings to survive, registering their energy and their vital dynamism, stu- ing the progressive development of the anatomical structures and the improvement of their physiology, verifying day by day the presence – sometimes fragile, so- times extremely resistant, but always human – of a child. A long line research has shown how, from the first moment onwards in that process of perfectly coordinated development that characterizes the life of the embryo, a human being gradually emerges who is increasingly able to interact with his or her environment.