Utility of Placental/Umbilical Cord Blood in Early Onset Neonatal Sepsis in Very Low Birth Weight Infants

After infant is delivered, placenta along with clamped umbilical cord Blood will be obtained from the ObGyn team. One umbilical clamp will be placed at the umbilical end, and the other clamp will be placed on the placental end of the umbilical cord. Then the umbilical cord will be cut between the clamps. The umbilical cord will be cleaned three times with 2% chlorhexidine, plus 70% isopropyl alcohol under sterile conditions (sterile gloves). Cord blood samples will be collected using vacutainer blood collecting system with a sterile 22-gauge needle. We will collect 3 - 4 ml of blood.