Delayed vs Early Umbilical Cord Clamping in 100 Preterm Infants: an RCT from Bhavnagar, Gujarat

_OBJECTIVE: _To investigate the safety, feasibility and efficacy of delayed cord clamping (DCC) compared with early cord clamping (ECC) at delivery among preterm infants born before completed 37 weeks’ gestation. _METHODS: _This is a randomized, controlled trial in which women in labor with 100 singleton pregnancies before completed 37 weeks gestation were randomly assigned to ECC (cord clamped before 30sec) or DCC (cord clamped after 120 sec) whether vaginal (84) or cesarean (16) deliveries. _RESULTS: _There were no significant difference in morbidities like Respiratory distress (p=0.45), Necrotising enterocolitis (p=0.31), Intraventricular hemorrhage (p=0.31), duration of hospital stay (p=0.22) between two randomization groups of DCC and ECC. There is no significant difference in mortality rate (p=0.6). DCC significantly reduced the requirement of blood transfusion and incidence of anemia at birth, at 1 and 4 months of age in preterm. _CONCLUSION: _The requirement of blood transfusion is reduced with delayed cord clamping upto the first four month of age significantly with improvement in hemoglobin and mean corpuscular volume. Infant morbidity was not affected by delayed vs early cord clamping, neither when regarding the neonatal period (hyperbilirubinaemia/ jaundice, respiratory symtoms, polycythemia), nor at the first 4 months of life (infection symptoms, gastro intestinal problems, contact with doctors).