Hold off on most vaccines
However the chickensoup way to determine a newborn cognitive intactness is to hold an alert newborn 8 to 8 inches from your eyes.
The baby will innately follow your hairline to find your eyes.
When the baby looks at your face stick your tongue out.
It may take several times to get the baby’s attention on the tongue.
Once the baby has focused on the tongue continue to wiggle tongue and poke it in and out.
Baby will often wiggle and will begin moving his own tongue. Within a session or two the baby will stick its tongue out with you.
Often the baby will start sticking its tongue out when you lift him, not to indicate feed but as a recognition of your thing to do.
Very cool
And allows baby to use the one muscle he has control over. Shows that eyes and primitive cognition are intact.
This is similar to a technique developed by the Swiss psychologist Piaget to determine intelligence level in babies.
If I recall correctly, it was called habituation, a process where a child develops disinterest due to the successive stimulation.
I experimented with it about 30 years ago and was surprised it worked.