Primary prevention
Appropriate support and advice to breast-feeding women, and increasing the frequency of breast-feeding to 8 to 12 times a day for the first few days, should be recommended.
Secondary prevention
In rare circumstances, depending on etiology (e.g., in partial conjugation enzyme defects), if unconjugated bilirubin levels remain high, lifelong intermittent phototherapy is required to prevent neurologic damage. High levels of unconjugated bilirubin can also lead to prolonged jaundice with conjugated hyperbilirubinemia, and this will require specific treatment depending on the metabolic/genetic/surgical etiology. Prevention of malnutrition and vitamin deficiencies is important in addition to promotion of bile flow and avoidance of bleeding. In one double-blind RCT, supplementation of Vitamin C in the final month of pregnancy had a decreasing effect on total serum bilirubin levels.[96]
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