Abstract
Within the last few years, the collection of postpartum placental blood for “blood banks” has been strongly advocated not only in Russia 1 but also in Canada 2 and in this country. 3 4 5 It has been pointed out that this is an inexhaustible and “lucrative” source of blood, satisfactory for transfusion purposes, and that its collection has no deleterious effect upon the mother. Possible effects upon the child have been disregarded because it has already become a rather common obstetrical practice to clamp the umbilical cord promptly at birth in spite of the fact that most of the placental blood normally drains into the body of the infant within a few minutes when the umbilical cord is not clamped immediately after delivery. 6 When the cord is clamped immediately, the infant is deprived of an alarming proportion of its total blood volume and usable iron at the very beginning of extra-uterine life. We have obtained proof that this blood-letting at birth affects the blood picture of the newborn significantly. The practice should be strongly condemned.
We have determined the amount of hemoglobin and number of red blood corpuscles in blood taken from the mother on the day of birth, in cord blood at birth, in blood from the newborn (heel) 15 to 75 minutes after birth, and from the infant at one, 3 to 4, and 6 to 7 days after birth in 2 series of patients. In one series of 25, the umbilical cord was clamped within 30 seconds after delivery; in another series of 29, clamping was delayed until pulsations had ceased and the placenta had separated. Hemoglobin was determined in grams percent with a calibrated Hellige-Sahli instrument. Red blood corpuscle counts were made with a Spencer hemo-cytometer (N.B.S.).
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