Hasty clamping of the umbilical cord may initiate neonatal intraventricular hemorrhage.

Intraventricular hemorrhage may result from surges in systemic vascular pressure, particularly when cerebral blood flow autoregulation is impaired by asphyxia, and the germinal matrix vasculature is immature. We postulate that early interruption of umbilical arterial blood flow may cause a rise in blood pressure sufficient to contribute to the development of intraventricular hemorrhage in susceptible neonates.