Effect of 40-cm segment umbilical cord milking on hemoglobin and serum ferritin at 6 months of age in full-term infants of anemic and non-anemic mothers

Objective:to assess the effect of early clamping and milking of a 40-cm umbilical cord lucm (long umbilical cord and milking) on hemoglobin (hb) and serum ferritin concentrations at 6 months of age and to evaluate whether the effect is different in infants of anemic and non-anemic mothers.study design:eligible term-infants of anemic (maternal hb<11.0 g dl−1) and non-anemic mothers (hb ⩾11.0 g dl−1) were randomized to lucm or control groups (n=100 each). in the lucm group, the umbilical cord was clamped at 40-cm length and milked. the control group had the cord clamped at 5 cm and not milked. neonatal morbidities until discharge and hb and serum ferritin at 6 months of age were compared. effects in infants of anemic and non-anemic mothers were compared.result:compared with infants of non-anemic mothers, cord hb was similar (14.50±1.90 g dl−1 vs 14.67±1.73 g dl−1), but cord ferritin lower (85.8±55.4 ng ml−1 vs 119.4±58.5 ng ml−1, p<0.01) in infants of anemic mothers. mean hb concentration at 6 months was 9.60±1.42 g dl−1 in the lucm group and 9.07±1.10 g dl−1 in the control group (p=0.004). mean serum-ferritin concentration at 6 months was 113.9±43.8 ng ml−1 in the lucm group and 70.8±39.5 ng/ml in the control group (p<0.001). the effectiveness of lucm did not vary with the maternal anemia status.conclusion:keeping the umbilical cord long and milking may be an effective method for improving hb and iron stores at 6 months of age in term-infants.