Neurodevelopmental Outcomes at 2 and 3.5 Years for Very Preterm Babies Enrolled in a Randomized Trial of Milking the Umbilical Cord versus Delayed Cord Clamping.

BACKGROUND: Guidelines published by the International Liaison Committee for Resuscitation and by the World Health Organization recommend delaying cord clamping at birth as part of routine care for infants.

OBJECTIVE: To study the use of milking of the cord 4 times as an alternative to enhance the redistribution of placental blood into the baby.

METHODS: This is a prospective cohort study of neurodevelopmental assessment by the Bayley III method of very preterm infants who had participated in a trial of delayed cord clamping versus cord milking at birth that was conducted in a neonatal tertiary care hospital. The primary outcomes were differences in cognitive, motor and language development at 2 and 3.5 years. Two-tailed analyses were performed with the x03C7;2 test, Fisher's exact test, t test, Mann-Whitney U test and ANCOVA.

RESULTS: Out of the 58 infants enrolled in the original study, 39 infants (67%) were assessed at 2 years and 29 (50%) at 3.5 years of age. Neurodevelopmental outcomes at 2 and 3.5 years did not significantly differ between the two groups for the three Bayley III composite scores. At 3.5 years there was a trend towards higher scores for girls in the language composite scores (girls: mean = 121.6, SD = 15.22; boys: mean = 101.07, SD = 19.84) and on the motor scale (girls: mean = 124.60, SD = 18.15; boys: mean = 97.86, SD = 17.23).

CONCLUSIONS: In this small number of participants followed up at 2 and 3.5 years of age, milking of the cord 4 times did not have any long-term adverse effect on neurodevelopmental outcome, suggesting that cord milking could be used as an alternative to delayed cord clamping.