Neonatal Pain Management is essential for reducing stress, stabilising physiology, supporting neurodevelopment, and improving short- and long-term outcomes. This session explores how newborns perceive pain, how repeated painful stimuli affect brain development, and how clinicians can deliver compassionate, evidence-based analgesia and comfort care.

Clinicians often seek an Neonatology Conference to strengthen skills in recognising pain cues, using validated pain scales, implementing non-pharmacologic comfort measures, and applying safe pharmacologic interventions. This session examines how developmental physiology shapes pain responses in preterm and term infants and highlights differences between acute procedural pain and prolonged postoperative pain.

A major focus is developing consistent pediatric neonatal pain pathways that minimise exposure to unnecessary painful procedures, support non-invasive approaches, and ensure appropriate analgesia when needed. Case examples illustrate strategies for sucrose analgesia, kangaroo care, breastfeeding for procedural pain, swaddling, and environmental modification. Pharmacologic topics include opioids, acetaminophen, regional anesthesia, and multimodal pain control.

This session also addresses the emotional and ethical dimensions of procedural pain, advocating for shared decision-making, trauma-informed care, and staff education. Participants will explore global disparities in access to analgesics and pain-assessment tools. By the end, attendees will feel confident in implementing a holistic neonatal pain-management approach.