Cutting the umbilical cord is a key skill after birth – and now Spanish researchers say the job should be delayed for two minutes.
Researchers studied babies in the days after birth and say they found indications that a delay in cutting the cord improves health and boosts the baby’s development.
They say that when cord-cutting was delayed new-born babies benefited from an increase in “antioxidant capacity.”
There were also reduced inflammatory effects when a baby had undergone induced delivery.
The study involved some 64 healthy pregnant women. In half the births, the umbilical cord was cut just ten seconds after delivery.
In the other 32 births, there was a two-minute delay.
Researcher Professor Julio José Ochoa Herrera, of the University of Granada, said: “Our study demonstrates that late clamping of the umbilical cord has a beneficial effect upon the antioxidant capacity and reduces the inflammatory signal induced during labour, which could improve the development of the new-born during his or her first days of life.”
The Timing of Cord Clamping and Oxidative Stress in Term Newborns. Pediatrics 2014;134;257; doi: 10.1542/peds.2013-3798
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