The effect of maternal pre-cesarean oral carbohydrate supplementation on neonatal jaundice: A randomized, double-blind clinical trial

Background: Lack of breastfeeding initiation in the first hours after birth is an influencing factor in the incidence of jaundice. Given the effectiveness of oral carbohydrate before the cesarean section on maternal breastfeeding in the first days of birth, this study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of oral carbohydrate on the incidence of neonatal jaundice. Methods: In this randomized, double-blind clinical trial study, a total of 91 women scheduled for elective cesarean surgery were randomly divided into intervention (oral carbohydrate before surgery, N=45) and placebo (flavored water before surgery, N=46) groups. The intervention group received 400 + 800 ml of a carbohydrate-rich solution 20 to 24 hours before surgery, while the placebo group received the same amount of flavored water. Until the end of the first week of birth, subjects were followed-up for neonatal jaundice incidence through the information contained in the medical records. Results: In the intervention group, 6 infants developed jaundice . In contrast, in the placebo group, 25 infants developed jaundice. The number of infants with jaundice was significantly lower in the group receiving oral carbohydrate than in the group receiving placebo (n = 25 (54.3%) VS. n = 6 (13.3%), p˂ 0.001). Conclusion: Carbohydrate could be used as a preventive dietary supplement against neonatal jaundice, which occurs due to the lack of breastfeeding. However, further clinical trials are needed to confirm our results and to investigate the role of other influencing factors on jaundice such as G6PD deficiency status.