Between the 4th and 8th day after delivery your baby will receive a heel prick and hearing test. An employee of the GGD will visit your house to do this. This will be automatically assessed after you have registered the birth of your baby.
Heel prick
Using a small prick in the heel of your baby a little blood will be drawn to be examined on 17 severe illnesses. Finding such a disease in time is important to be able to treat them in time and prevent too much damage to the health of your baby.
We assume you would like to know if your baby is sick, but the heel prick also makes it possible to test on whether your baby is carrier of a disease. When your baby is a carrier he or she is not sick, but his or her genes carry the disease so it is possible your baby’s future children might get the disease your baby carries. Whether or not you want to know if your baby is a carrier is something you may decide for yourself. We advise you to discuss this with your partner before the test takes place.
For more information on the heel prick: http://www.rivm.nl/Onderwerpen/H/Hielprik