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Subject Area

Endemic and Tropical Medicine

Article Type

Original Study

Abstract

Objective The aim was to assess short-term outcome of both early and late cord clamping in full-term newborns. Background Delaying clamping of the umbilical cord for at least 2 min after birth consistently improved both the short-term and long-term hematologic and iron status of full-term infants. Participants and methods This is a case–control study that was conducted on 100 Egyptian full-term neonates (47 males and 53 females), involving 50 newborns with early clamping of the cord less than or equal to 1 min as group I and 50 newborns with late clamping of the cord more than 1 min without milking of the cord, matched for age and sex, as group II. All of them were subjected to full history, physical examination, Appearance (skin color), Pulse (heart rate), Grimace (reflex irritability), Activity (muscle tone), and Respiration (APGAR) score, and blood samples taking at birth and after 24 h. Complete blood count including hemoglobin (Hb), packed cell volume, hematocrit, mean corpuscular volume, reticulocyte count, and total serum bilirubin (TBS) was done. Results Hb, hematocrit, packed cell volume, and TBS (P < 0.05) were significantly higher after 24 h of cord clamping in the delayed clamping group than early clamping. APGAR score had no significant difference. Conclusion In term infants, delayed umbilical cord clamping increases Hb levels at birth. There is a small increase in TBS, requiring follow-up after 24 h, in term infants undergoing delayed umbilical cord clamping.

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