OBJECTIVE To investigate the effects of interventions promoting placental transfusion at delivery (delayed cord clamping or umbilical cord milking) compared with early cord clamping on outcomes among premature neonates of less than 32 weeks of gestation. DATA SOURCES A systematic search was conducted of PubMed, Embase, and ClinicalTrials.gov databases (January 1965 to December 2013) for artic...

OBJECTIVE With the introduction of active management of the third stage of labour in the 1960s, it became usual practice to clamp and cut the umbilical cord immediately following birth. The timing of this cord clamping is controversial, as blood may beneficially be transferred to the baby if clamping of the cord is delayed slightly. There is no agreement, however, on how long the delay should b...

The timing of umbilical cord clamping during the third stage of labor has been a point of contention for many years. The estimated combined blood-volume of the fetal and placental unit is 105-110 ml/ kg [1,2]. Two thirds of this volume is in the fetal circulation and one third in the placenta. In his publication “Zoonomia; or The Laws of Organic Life” originally published in 1794, Erasmus Darwi...

BACKGROUND Optimal timing for clamping of the umbilical cord at birth is unclear. Early clamping allows for immediate resuscitation of the newborn. Delaying clamping may facilitate transfusion of blood between the placenta and the baby. OBJECTIVES To delineate the short- and long-term effects for infants born at less than 37 completed weeks' gestation, and their mothers, of early compared to ...

The purpose of this study was to examine some aspects of umbilical cord blood collection for autologous transfusion in premature infants. All 120 microbacterial cultures (aerobic and anaerobic) of cord blood samples as well as 30 cultures of mycoplasma were treated. Cord prothrombin fragment (F 1 + 2) concentrations were quantified at one and 10 minutes after clamping of the cord. F 1 + 2 conce...

Historically, in midwifery and obstetric care, the umbilical cord was not usually clamped until all pulsation of the cord had ceased. This is now referred to as delayed cord clamping or DCC (not clamping umbilical cord before two minutes of life). During the last one hundred years with changes in the ways women give birth, especially the shift toward hospital based birth in the Western world, i...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the effect of a two-component intervention to change hospital practice with regard to the timing of umbilical cord clamping. METHODS A pre-/post-study design was used to measure the effect of a two-component intervention on mean time to clamp the umbilical cord. The study took place at Hospital Iquitos "César Garayar García" in Iquitos, Peru. A total of 224 women were...

For at least over 200 years, multiple controversies have arisen around the timing of umbilical cord clamping. In the past decades, early cord clamping (within the first 15 seconds) had markedly prevailed. Only in the 21st century, randomized controlled trials have demonstrated the benefits of delayed cord clamping (at 2-3 minutes). Delayed cord clamping has been practiced in obstetrics based on...

Delayed clamping of the umbilical cord is recommended for term and preterm infants who do not require resuscitation. However, the approach to the newly born infant with signs of fetal compromise, prematurity and extremely low birthweight, or prolonged apnea is less clear. Human and experimental animal data show that delaying the clamping of the umbilical cord until after the onset of respiratio...