Umbilical cord as affected by two methods of bathing the newborn

The purpose of this study was to determine if there was any difference in cord colonization by coagulase positive Staphylococcus aureaus in infants being sponge-rinsed and those being tub-rinsed using identical lathering procedures and cord care with soap containing 3% hexachlorophene. The amount of water contact with the cord was irrelevant to the study. It has hypothesized that there would be no significant difference in cord colonization by coagulase positive Staphylococcus aureus on the umbilicus of newborn infants using two selected methods of rinsing infants. The study was conducted on the 21 bed postpartum unit of a 277 bed general, teaching hospital for a three week period. Included in the study were 30 newborn infants. Fifteen infants were in the tub-rinsed group. There was no significant difference in cord colonization by coagulase positive Staphpylococcus aureus in the two group of infants. The data showed that the cords of those infants who were tub rinsed separated significantly sooner than did the cords of those infants who were sponge rinsed. The data from this study indicated that there seemed to be no contraindication to teaching mothers in the hospital to tub rinse their newborn infants. Trends were apparent which would suggest that the study be repeated using a larger sample.