Program
Nurse-Midwifery M.S.
Year Approved
2017
First Advisor
Vingers, Julie-Ann
Abstract
Purpose: The purpose of the critical review of literature was to identify and analyze benefits of delayed umbilical cord clamping in full term and preterm infants with a focus on iron stores, hemoglobin, hematocrit, and hyperbilirubinemia. Methods: Twenty-two articles were included in the critical literature review with the purpose of determining whether delayed umbilical cord clamping caused increases in iron stores, hemoglobin and hematocrit, or had no clinical significant increases in hyperbilirubinemia causing neonatal jaundice and the need for phototherapy treatment. Results/Conclusion: Delayed umbilical cord clamping is a low risk, cost effective intervention that is safe and has many benefits to both preterm and full term infants. Furthermore, delayed umbilical cord clamping should be the standard of care within all birth settings. Implications for Research and Practice: Nurse-midwives should implement delayed umbilical cord clamping in every birth since it has been proven to have many benefits including decreasing iron deficiency anemia in the newborn for up to six months of life, increasing hemoglobin and hematocrit without any significant rates of hyperbilirubinemia, decreasing rates of intraventricular hemorrhage, late onset sepsis, and necrotizing enterocolitis in the preterm infant. Nurse-midwives must be visionary leaders in implementing change within organizations for the practice of delayed umbilical cord clamping for all births.
Degree Name
M.S. Nurse-Midwifery
Document Type
Masterʼs thesis
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Shaver, L. A. (2017). Implications for delayed versus immediate umbilical cord clamping [Masterʼs thesis, Bethel University]. Spark Repository. https://spark.bethel.edu/etd/578