Background: Human umbilical cord blood is often discarded as a biomedical waste. We aimed to standardise a local cord blood reference range for the West Bengal population. The cord blood haematological values differ depending on ethnic, regional and genealogical groups, so we primarily focussed our study on the international and intra-national differences of cord blood parameters. Comparison between the cord blood values of urban and the rural population along with normal and caesarean deliveries was not recorded before.

Methods: Umbilical cord blood was procured from consenting mothers (average age: 26.1 and 38-40 weeks gestation period), post-delivery at Medical College, Kolkata. Cord blood parameters were divided into two major groups: urban and rural population, each group was further divided into two sub-groups depending on the mode of delivery: normal and caesarean delivery. Comparison was also drawn on the basis of other international groups having different ethnic backgrounds and inter-state individuals having similar ethnic background.

Results: Our results showed West Bengal’s cord blood WBC value was higher and monocyte count was much lesser when compared globally. The neutrophil value was higher in rural as compared to urban and both the lymphocyte and platelet values of urban were recorded more than rural. Slight differences were recorded among urban-normal, urban-caesarean, rural normal and rural caesarean groups.

Conclusion: A new angle in terms of urban and rural population study is introduced in cord blood analysis. The standardisation of cord blood reference range for the West Bengal population is a new step for neonatal studies.