Squeezing blood from the umbilical cord improves blood pressure and red blood cell counts in Caesarean section-delivered premature babies, reports Pediatrics.
The study of 197 newborns was conducted by Californian specialists from Sharp Mary Birch Hospital for Women and Newborns in San Diego and Loma Linda University in Loma Linda.
The technique known as milking involves catching the umbilical cord between your thumb and forefinger, gently pressing it and slowly pushing the cord blood into the baby’s abdomen.
For babies born by cesarean section, milking gives better results than the standard practice of clamping the umbilical cord after 45-60 seconds and then cutting it. Blood flow in the superior vena cava improves, pulmonary and cerebral flow improves, the level of red blood cells and arterial pressure increase. For vaginal babies, milking was of no greater benefit than deferred clamping and cutting the umbilical cord. It is possible that this difference is due to the effect of anesthesia on blood distribution in the fetal circulation.
Too little blood in the preterm’s bloodstream and too low blood pressure are paradoxically conducive to hemorrhages into the ventricles of the brain. The consequence of such bleeding may be developmental delays, cerebral palsy, and in the most severe cases – death.
Specialists commenting on the results emphasize that the tests should be repeated on a larger number of newborns.