Reading Views and Reviews by David Hutchon, on page 1220 of Volume
341, reminded me of my own interest in early and late clamping of the
cord, at the then Dudley Road hospital in Birmingham, around 1956.
I arranged a rather primitive method of measuring the residual
placental blood by draining it into a measuring cylinder by force of
gravity.
In one group, the cord was clamped immediately and the residual blood came
to around 90 to 100ml, about a quarter of the infant's blood volume,
depriving it of significant iron stores. In the other group, the infant
was laid between the mother's legs and kept warm, either until the
placenta had separated, or for a period of five minutes. In this group
only about 5ml was drained.
After a dozen cases had been tested, one infant in the delayed group
developed significant jaundice, bordering on the need for exchange
transfusion due, I think, to OA incompatibility. That and my wife's
protests at my being woken at night, rather more often than usual,
persuaded me to abandon the project. I had intended following these
infants, to see if the anaemia reported at three months of age, differed
between the two groups.
Surely some better paediatric brains than mine have considered this
since?
Rapid Response:
Umbilical cord clamping
Reading Views and Reviews by David Hutchon, on page 1220 of Volume
341, reminded me of my own interest in early and late clamping of the
cord, at the then Dudley Road hospital in Birmingham, around 1956.
I arranged a rather primitive method of measuring the residual
placental blood by draining it into a measuring cylinder by force of
gravity.
In one group, the cord was clamped immediately and the residual blood came
to around 90 to 100ml, about a quarter of the infant's blood volume,
depriving it of significant iron stores. In the other group, the infant
was laid between the mother's legs and kept warm, either until the
placenta had separated, or for a period of five minutes. In this group
only about 5ml was drained.
After a dozen cases had been tested, one infant in the delayed group
developed significant jaundice, bordering on the need for exchange
transfusion due, I think, to OA incompatibility. That and my wife's
protests at my being woken at night, rather more often than usual,
persuaded me to abandon the project. I had intended following these
infants, to see if the anaemia reported at three months of age, differed
between the two groups.
Surely some better paediatric brains than mine have considered this
since?
Yours sincerely
Ben Wood DM. FRCP.
Competing interests: No competing interests