Cord care: too much or too little.

This research project was undertaken at a teaching hospital to determine whether no treatment of newborns' umbilical cords was more effective than the current treatment employed. One hundred and three babies were included in the study. The cords of babies nursed in one postnatal ward were not treated (trial group); babies nursed in another postnatal ward became the control group whose cords were treated with spirit (alcohol 70%) and ties. Cords separated earlier for the trial group (mean 6.4 days) than the control group (mean 8.04 days) and mothers of trial group babies reported fewer problems with umbilical cords than those of control group babies.