AIMS supports midwife Amanda Burleigh’s campaign for optimal cord clamping “Wait for White”. Optimal cord clamping is a key part of physiological birth, providing the neonate with a full blood volume and important in helping the transition to extra-uterine life.
See waitforwhite.com for further details.
See www.bloodtobaby.com for further details
Bedside resuscitation with the cord intact allows ventilation to be started before cord clamping, which can help to compensate for hypoxia.
Improved outcomes include:
(Rabe et al, 2019, Robledo et al, 2022).
See waitforwhite.com/intact-cord-resuscitation for further details.
For preterm neonates, immediate cord clamping can cause a loss of up to 50% of blood volume (www.waitforwhite.com). Optimal cord clamping for preterm babies reduces risks including intraventricular haemorrhage and sepsis. In fact, for preterm neonates, immediate cord clamping has been shown to increase the risk of neonatal mortality by 28% (Fogarty et al, 2018).
We hope that this page is of interest, especially to our colleagues in the maternity services improvement community.
The AIMS Campaigns Team relies on Volunteers to carry out its work. If you would like to collaborate with us, are looking for further information about our work, or would like to join our team, please email campaigns@aims.org.uk.
You are welcome to quote from or link to this article in your own work to improve maternity services but please credit AIMS as the source. If you are using a quote please include the following words: “Quote from the AIMS article {URL}. AIMS is a charity that works towards better births for all by campaigning and information sharing, protecting human rights in childbirth and helping maternity service users to know their rights, whatever birth they want, and wherever they want it. See www.aims.org.uk"
Please consider supporting us by becoming an AIMS member or making a donation. We are a small charity that accepts no commercial sponsorship, in order to preserve our reputation for providing impartial, evidence-based information.