Increment in Phototherapy After Adopting Delayed Cord Clamping Practice

Introduction: World Health Organization (WHO) in 2014 recommended delayed cord clamping (DCC) in all babies who cry immediately after birth. Despite many benefits, there are concerns of increased rate of phototherapy in babies receiving DCC. This study was done to determine the increment in the rate of phototherapy required in infants managed with DCC vs infants managed with early cord clamping (ECC). Methods: A retrospective observational study was conducted in a tertiary care hospital in Pune, India. All the infants born between January 2018 and July 2018, for whom ECC was done, were compared with infants who were born between January 2019 and July 2019, after DCC policy was adopted. All the infants with birth weight ≥2 kg and gestation ≥35 weeks, who were with their mother, were included. Baseline characteristics were compared for both the groups. American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines for treatment of neonatal jaundice were used to determine the need for phototherapy. Number of infants in both the groups who required phototherapy were compared. Results: The ECC group had 565 infants while DCC group had 731 infants. There was no difference in the baseline characteristics of the 2 groups. Jaundice requiring phototherapy was noted in 31% of infants in the ECC group, compared to 45% in infants in the DCC group (relative risk: 1.47 [1.27-1.71] [ P < .001]). Conclusion: In this study, DCC increased the need for phototherapy by 47% in late preterm and term infants. Randomized control trials with larger sample size are required to confirm this finding.