About 15 million babies are born early every year.
Now, researchers have found that delaying the cord clamping by 60 seconds in preemies could save as many as 100,000 lives every year.
Current best practice from the WHO suggests that the best time to cut the cord for all babies should be one minute after birth. This study, carried out in Australia, is the first of its kind to provide a large sample of data proving this could make a big difference to the health of newbies.
So how does it work?
Preterm babies are born with less blood in their bodies than term babies. This puts them at risk of anaemia. The delay in clamping the cord means that the leftover blood in the placenta can transfer to them through the umbilical cord. This blood can help in three ways.
1. Makes up for the preterm baby's lack of red blood cells.
2. The blood transferred from the placenta also contains iron - this is important for a baby's brain development.
3. Mum's blood contains immunoglobulins which help vulnerable babies fight infections.
The new Australia study carried out at the Univerity of Sydney, analysed over 3,000 births. They found that 9% of preterm babies died when the cord was clamped immediately after they were born. That compares to just 6% of preterm babies who;s cords were clamped after one minute.
This reduction of almost a third is hugely significant. It is hoped that knowing more about the benefits of such tweaks in medical practice might go a long way to saving more lives of some of the most vulnerable babies.
Head of the University of Sydney, Belinda Hutchinson said the research is groundbreaking.
She experienced first-hand the heartache of preterm birth:
"This is a cause which is very important to me, with my own granddaughter born at 28 weeks. She is now a vibrant three-year-old but I know many others don't have such a great outcome which is why research in this area is so vital."
