Overview

Member States have requested guidance from WHO on the effects of late cord clamping for improving maternal and infant nutrition and health, as a public health strategy in support of their efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, as well as the global targets set in the Comprehensive implementation plan on maternal, infant and young child nutrition.

The guideline is intended for a wide audience, including policy-makers; their expert advisers; technical and programme staff at organizations involved in the design, implementation and scaling-up of nutrition actions for public health; and health staff providing care to mothers and their infants.

Contents

• Acknowledgements
• Executive summary
• Scope and purpose
• Background
• Summary of evidence
  • Maternal outcomes
  • Neonatal outcomes (term and preterm infants)
• Recommendations
• Remarks
• Implications for future research
• Dissemination, adaptation, implementation, monitoring and ethical considerations
  • Dissemination
  • Adaptation and implementation
  • Ethical considerations
• Guideline development process
  • Advisory groups
  • Scope of the guideline, evidence appraisal and decision-making
• Management of competing interests
• Plans for updating the guideline
• References
• Annex 1 Ongoing trials
• Annex 2 WHO Steering Committee for Nutrition Guidelines Development
• Annex 3 WHO guideline development group – nutrition actions 2013–2014, WHO Secretariat and external resource experts
• Annex 4 Peer-reviewers

Suggested citation:

WHO. Guideline: Delayed umbilical cord clamping for improved maternal and infant health and nutrition outcomes. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2014.

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