An Observational Study of Umbilical Cord Clamping Practices of Maternity Care Providers in a Tertiary Care Center

BACKGROUND: Severing the umbilical cord at birth is likely the oldest intervention, the timing of which remains fraught with controversy. Emerging evidence suggests benefit in delaying cord clamping for both term and preterm infants. The objective of this study was to investigate actual cord clamping time and circumstances at a large tertiary care center in Canada. METHODS: We used a stopwatch to time the interval from the time the infant was …