Introduction and background of the study The fetus was connected to the mother through umbilical cord during intranatal life to get all the nourishment but, soon after delivery it gets separated and becomes prone to get microbial growth due to availability of open blood vessels in it. The natural drying of cord is costless but the expenses can be increased due to infection and medical care. There are several non pharmacological agents scientifically proven to be effective for the umbilical cord care and in reduction of umbilical cord separation time. The breastmilk is easy to use, readily available and inexpensive method of umbilical cord care which the mother herself can use for the newborn.
Methodology The post test only control group research design was used for the study. 80 newborns who were delivered normally at selected hospitals of Anand district, Gujarat were conveniently selected and then randomly allocated to experimental and control group (40 each). A validated data collection tool was used for both the groups. For the newborns of experimental group, breastmilk was topically applied over the umbilical cord stump until the cord fell off and for control group cord observation was done until the cord fell off.
Results There was statistically significant difference found among umbilical cord separation time among experimental and control group calculated by Mann Whitney test 92.5 at the p- value <0.001 level of significance. Conclusion Study concluded that there was significant difference between umbilical cord separation time among experimental and control group. Hence, the topical application of breastmilk showed significant effect on umbilical cord separation time and can be used as a convention method of cord care.
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