Factors Affecting Bilirubin Levels during First 48 Hours of Life in Healthy Infants

Table 3

Relationship of late preterm delivery with delivery modes, first feeding and first meconium passage times, and bilirubin levels.

	Late preterm; (n: 120)	Term; (n: 268)	𝑃
C/S^‡	98 (81.7%)	186 (69.4%)	0.01
Vaginal^‡	22 (18.3%)	82 (30.6%)
First feeding^† (hour)	1.00; (1); [0.1–3]	1.00; (1.5); [0.1–3]	0.05
Breastfeeding^‡	47 (39.2%)	180 (67.2%)
Mixed feeding^‡	72 (60.0%)	87 (32.5%)	0.00
Formula^‡	1 (0.8%)	1 (0.4%)
Anesthesia type
General^‡	16 (16.3%)	23 (12.4%)
Epidural^‡	9 (9.2%)	14 (7.5%)	0.28
Spinal^‡	73 (74.5%)	149 (80.1%)
First meconium passage^† (hour)	7.00; (8); [0–28]	6.00; (6); [0–36]	0.02
Cord bilirubin^† (mg/dL)	1.60; (0.6); [0.8–4]	1.60; (0.6); [0.3–4.5]	0.55
Bilirubin, 24 hours (mg/dL)^†	4.05; (2.6); (1.0–10.2)	4.25; (2.0); (0.1–10.6)	0.32
Bilirubin, 48 hours (mg/dL)^†	6.90; (3.1); [2.7–14.9]	6.50; (2.4); [0.6–13.9]	0.07
24 hours bilirubin >6 mg/dL^‡*	18 (15%)	39 (14.6%)	0.87

†Data presented as median (interquartile range: IQR) (min–max).
‡Data presented as number (%).
∗The bilirubin 75th percentile cut off level in Bhutani’s nomogram [9].