Objective: To investigate the effects of delayed umbilical cord clamping, compared with early clamping, on infant’s neurodevelopmental outcomes at 6-8 weeks of age in healthy term neonates. Design: A hospital based prospective, observational study. Setting: Lady Harding Medical College and Smt. Sucheta Kriplani Hospital, Delhi. Participants: 238 full term singleton infants born through normal vaginal delivery. Intervention:Infants were divided in two groups delayed umbilical cord clamping (60 seconds after delivery) or early umbilical cord clamping (60 seconds after delivery) from the data collected. Outcome Measures: To study the effects of delayed umbilical cord clamping, compared with early clamping on neurodevelopmental outcomes at 6-8 weeks of age in healthy term neonates. Results: At 6- 8 weeks of age, there were no significant differences between the neurodevelopmental outcome of babies in the delayed and early umbilical cord clamping groups. Conclusions: Delayed cord clamping did not result in any difference in neurodevelopmental outcome compared with early umbilical cord clamping.

Keywords: Umbilical Cord Clamping; Neuro-Development.