Please see this abstract which was presented at the February 2019 annual meeting of the Society of Maternal Fetal Medicine. Following an interim assessment of the described Trial comparing the effects of umbilical cord milking (UCM) with attached cord versus delayed cord clamping (DCC) in premature infants, recruitment was stopped due to safety concerns. The authors conclude that in extremely premature infants (23 – 27 weeks gestation), there was an increased risk for severe intraventricular haemorrhage (IVH) after exposure to UCM (22% vs 4%, p=0.0007).
Members of the Department of Neonatal Perinatal Medicine at the IWK have reviewed this abstract and are recommending that, as a precautionary measure until the full study details are available for review, clinicians should not milk the attached cord for preterm babies (<32 weeks’ gestation).
If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact RCP at rcp@iwk.nshealth.ca.