6 December 2022
The Trust that runs maternity services for women and service users in Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin has been confirmed as an outstanding outlier for the measure ‘delayed cord clamping’ in the National Neonatal Audit Programme 2021 report. The percentage of delayed cord clamping at The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) was 95.5% in 2021, the average result for England and Wales was 43%.
Delayed cord clamping is when a midwife waits at least one minute before cutting the umbilical cord after baby is born. It allows extra blood to be transferred from the placenta, increasing the amount of iron, which is essential for brain development, transferred to baby. Cord clamping is known to reduce mortality by 32% in very preterm infants.
Dr Mei-See Hon, Consultant Obstetrician, Clinical Director Obstetrics, said: “This result is a credit to our obstetric and midwifery teams and is testament to the excellent partnership between our neonatal and maternity teams. As a team we are working hard to deliver the best care and achieve the best outcomes of the service users and babies we care for.”
Annemarie Lawrence, Director of Midwifery, said: “Where possible, we advocate delayed cord clamping as it we know it may improve babies’ health. We are happy to help birth partners to cut the cord whilst maintaining this practice and we are working hard to tailor every birth experience to deliver the best care we can.”