EARLY VERSUS LATE CLAMPING OF THE UMBILICAL CORD - Essay Example

Internationally, roughly a quarter of children below the age of four have iron deficiency anaemia, the severest type of iron deficiency (McDonald & Middleton, 2009). In Europe alone, the occurrence of this iron deficiency is between 3 to 7% among children below the age of four, and the occurrence of iron deficiency has been found to be as high as 26% (Grajeda et al., 2013). Some researchers argue that late cord clamping might have poor neonatal implications with enhanced risk of polycythaemia, respiratory symptoms, need of phototherapy and hyperbilirubinaemia (Emhamed et al., 2012). However, the main findings of this paper are that delaying of the umbilical cord clamping in full-term neonates for at least 2 minutes following birth is useful to the infant, extending into infancy.

Even though, there was a raise in polycythemia among babies in whom cord clamping was belated, this condition seemed to be benign. Another main finding of this paper is that the iron amount in the blood in the cord is large, which the baby requires for optimal fitness and for the hindrance of anaemia. Prior to the mid 50s, the phrase “early clamping” was defined as the clamping of umbilical cord in a minute just after birth, and “late clamping,” on the other hand, as clamping the of the umbilical cord over 5 minutes following the baby’s birth (Grajeda et al., 2013). In a number of researches of blood quantity changes following a baby’s birth carried out by researchers in nations like the U.S., the United Kingdom, as well as Canada, it was found out that in healthy term babies, over 90% of blood volume was attained in the first few breaths the baby took following birth (Mathew, 2011).

Due to these findings and the lack of specific recommendations regarding the best timing, the period between birth and clamping of the umbilical cord started to be reduced. In a majority of cases, clamping of the umbilical cord is carried out between 15 to 20 seconds following the birth