Comparison of the Frequency of Neonatal Anemia in Early Versus Delayed Cord Clamping in Infants at Term

Abstract

Introduction: There has been a long-running debate about the best time to clip the umblical cord. There are no established standards for "early" or "late" cord clamping. There are a wide range of approaches concerning at what time the umbilical cord should be compressed, ranging from within 60 seconds after delivery to more than 60 seconds after birth or with the cessation of umblical cord pulsations

Objectives: To compare the incidence of newborn anemia in term infants who had their cords clamped early against those who had their cords clamped later.

Methods and Materials: Pregnant women who were at 37 to 41 weeks' gestation were included in the study. Diabetic mother's infants, IUGR and PROM were not considered. Early cord clamping (cord clamping within 15 seconds of birth) was performed in category A infants, while delayed cord clamping (cord clamping after 3 minutes of birth) was performed in category B. Blood samples (in ml) from all neonates in both study categorys were taken at the 6th hour after cord clamping and sent to the laboratory for hematocrit level assessment, and anemia was found in both categorys.

Results: The mean age of patients in category A was 25.65 ± 4.10 years, and the mean age of patients in category B was 27 ± 4.04 years. The mean gestational age was 39.31 weeks with a standard deviation of 1.46 weeks. The mean parity was 3.34 ± 1.11, which is a rather high result. Among the 236 newborns, there were 133 males and 103 females, with a male to female ratio of 1.3:1. Neonatal anemia was more common in category A (early catheter clamp) than in category B (late catheter clamp), with a p value of 0.002 between the two.

Conclusion: Compared to delayed cord clamping, newborn anemia is more common after early cord clamping in term neonates.