Benefits and Risk of delayed cord clamping

 Benefits 

• Delayed cord clamping offers the most benefits to preterm infants, but it also benefits full-term babies and mothers.
• Delayed cord clamping to increase hemoglobin and iron in full-term babies. This can reduce a baby's risk of anemia.
• Children whose cords were clamped 3 or more minutes after birth scored slightly higher on an assessment of fine motor skills and social skills than the children whose cords were clamped 10 seconds or less after birth.
• Delayed clamping may reduce the need for blood transfusions and improve circulation in premature babies. It helps lower the risk of bleeding in the brain and necrotizing enterocolitis, an intestinal disease that affects almost 5 to 10 percent of premature infants.

  

  Necrotizing enterocolitis

Are there any risks?

• A delay in cord clamping has been linked to a higher risk of jaundice. But delayed clamping's benefits may outweigh the risk, as long as phototherapy treatment for jaundice is available.
• According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), delayed cord clamping does not increase the risk for postpartum hemorrhage, or exercise maternal blood loss.
• Delayed cord clamping is possible whether you have a cesarean or vaginal delivery. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), delayed clamping is just as important for a cesarean birth.
• Research examining the effects of delayed clamping in multiple births is limited. Women having multiple found no negative effects of delayed cord clamping for multiple births.
• This suggests that delayed clamping poses no increased risk if you are having twins. And also found delayed clamping to be safe and beneficial for preterm twins
• Immediate cord clamping is generally necessary if you are bleeding heavily after giving birth, if the baby is not breathing, or if another concern makes prompt medical attention necessary.

Does it affect umbilical cord banking?

• Some parents choose to preserve blood from the cord after delivery to benefit medical research. This blood is a good source of stem cells. It can be stored and used to treat conditions like leukemia and Hodgkin's disease (is a type of lymphoma, which is the blood cancer that start in the lymphatics system).
• If you are thinking about cord banking and would like to delay cord clamping, there are some things to consider.
• Delayed cord clamping reduces the amount of blood that can be banked. It may not be possible to delay cord clamping by more than 60 seconds and also bank cord blood.
• Still possible to collect cord blood when clamping took place 30 to 60 seconds after birth.
• If you want to delay cord clamping and also bank cord blood, your care provider can give you more information about our options.