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Newborn hearing screening
A soft probe in a sleeping baby’s ear, a few minutes, no discomfort. It exists because hearing loss found in the first months has a completely different outcome from hearing loss found at three.
This page describes screening programmes; it is not a diagnosis, not a personal risk assessment and not a substitute for your own health service. Age bands are set nationally and change — the invitation you receive, and the body named on your country page, outrank anything written here. Screening is for people without symptoms: a new lump, blood you can see, a mole that has changed, unexplained weight loss or a sudden change in vision or hearing needs a clinician now, whatever a recent screening result said.
Where it is organised
Nowhere in this region as an invitation programme. That is a decision rather than an oversight, and the section below explains the reasoning. It also means nothing will arrive in the post: if this is something you want checked, you have to ask for it.
Why the first months matter so much
The brain builds its speech and language machinery on sound it receives in the first year, and that window does not stay open indefinitely. Congenital hearing loss that is identified and supported within the first six months of life leads to language outcomes close to those of hearing children; the same degree of loss identified at two or three does not. Before universal newborn screening, the average age at diagnosis was well into the second or third year, because a quiet, contented baby who does not startle is easy to miss. That is the entire argument for testing every newborn rather than the ones somebody worried about.
The two tests
Otoacoustic emissions works by playing a click into the ear and listening for the tiny echo a healthy inner ear produces back. It takes a few minutes on a sleeping baby and needs nothing but a soft probe in the ear canal. Automated auditory brainstem response places three small stickers on the head and measures the nerve response to sound; it is used for babies who were in intensive care, and as a second-stage test. Neither hurts, neither needs sedation, and both work best on a baby who has just been fed and is asleep.
"Refer" does not mean deaf
The result is not pass or fail but pass or refer, and refer means the test did not get a clear response today. Fluid left in the middle ear after birth, a noisy ward, or a baby who woke up all produce a refer. Most babies who are referred hear normally, and the second test is often clear. It is nonetheless a real appointment to keep: the small number of babies who do have hearing loss are found this way, and the international benchmark that every programme aims at is screening by one month of age, diagnostic testing by three months and support in place by six.
Hearing can change after a normal screen
A pass at birth is a snapshot. Some hearing loss is progressive, some is caused later by meningitis or by certain medicines, and glue ear — fluid behind the eardrum — is extremely common in toddlers and can dampen hearing for months at exactly the age language is forming. So a normal newborn screen never overrides a parent’s later observation. A child who does not turn to your voice, whose speech is delayed, who wants the television loud or who stopped responding after an illness needs a fresh hearing test, whatever the card from the maternity ward says.
Sources: Joint Committee on Infant Hearing — the 1-3-6 benchmark for early hearing detection and intervention · Valtioneuvoston asetus seulonnoista 339/2011 (Finlex) · checked 2026-09-07
Korduma kippuvad küsimused
Does newborn hearing screening hurt?
No. It is a soft probe in the ear canal, or three stickers on the head, on a sleeping baby. It takes a few minutes and needs no sedation.
Our baby was referred after the hearing screen — what does that mean?
That the test did not get a clear response that day. Fluid in the middle ear after birth, background noise or a wakeful baby all cause it. Most referred babies hear normally, but the follow-up appointment is important because it is how the few with real hearing loss are found.
Why does newborn hearing screening matter so much?
Because language builds on sound in the first year. Hearing loss supported within the first six months gives language outcomes close to hearing children; the same loss found at two or three does not.
Our baby passed — can hearing still be a problem later?
Yes. Some losses are progressive, some follow illness or certain medicines, and glue ear is very common in toddlers. A normal newborn screen never overrules a later concern about how a child responds to sound or how speech is developing.
The rest of the surface
Breast cancer screening (mammography)
An X-ray of each breast, read by two radiologists, repeated every two years across a band of ages that starts at 40 in Sweden and 50 almost everywhere else. What it finds, what it misses and what a call-back means.
Cervical screening (HPV test)
Almost every country in the region has switched from looking for abnormal cells to looking for the virus that causes them. The test is better, so the gap between tests is longer — and in several countries you can now take the sample yourself.
Bowel cancer screening (stool test)
A sample from one bowel movement, taken at home and posted. It is the only screening programme in the region that routinely prevents cancers rather than only finding them early — because the follow-up removes the polyp.
Prostate screening (PSA)
Latvia and Lithuania fund PSA testing for men in their fifties and sixties. Sweden assessed the same evidence and recommends against an organised programme. Here is what the trials actually found.
Lung cancer screening (low-dose CT)
The trials are positive and the European recommendation asks countries to build programmes stepwise. In this region it is still pilots rather than invitations — but the eligibility rule is worth knowing.
What screening can and cannot do
Overdiagnosis, false positives, interval cases and lead-time bias — the four ideas behind every disagreement between countries.
All 27 screening pagesIf the result is not normal
The record that makes the appointment shorter
TempoLife keeps weight, blood pressure, sleep and symptoms in one place, so the questions you get asked at a screening appointment already have answers.