leaving umbilical cord attached until it drains??

[starbyfar7]

i was reading a birth story and was shocked to read that this mom after delivering her baby insisted that her midwife not cut the umbilical cord until atleast 45minutes after the birth. she said they left the cord on and she nursed her baby and watched as the cord drained less and less and then sealed itself, and she then birthed the placenta. delaying cord cutting is supposed to be a nice slow transition for the baby.. but i've never heard of it. and too, apparently when you choose this route, banking baby's cord blood is no longer an option. anyone ever heard of this delayed cord cutting or actually done it? i'd love to hear more about it, i'm intrigued!

[~Demeter~]

I've done it... my doctor's perspective on it is, if that blood is so important then baby should get it, no? Also.. you can still donate cord blood if you so choose, you just wait for the cord to stop pulsating first.

[MsBlack]

In my practice it is rare for cords to be cut before they are entirely drained...we are just not thinking about the cord, until the placenta is about to be born (or has already been born). At that point we start thinking about the cord, it becomes an inconvenience basically, that it's time to deal with. Well, cords aren't clamped/cut unless someone wants some cord blood for banking or bloodtyping purposes--then clamping is done within some minutes, but usually not until it's plain that the cord is not doing much anymore, is shrinking/shriveling a bit (but you can still see there is some blood in it, as opposed to the purely white, fully shrunken look of a cord that is entirely done carrying blood).

Yes, blood is important! So leaving that cord to finish giving the baby all the blood it can, is also important. And since babies need to be with their mamas at birth and afterward, there is no reason to sever that tie under normal circumstances. I think cords are cut soon in hospitals mainly because then they can immediately take the baby away from the mom for their own purposes, having more control over the baby. But there is no proven reason for immediate cord clamping--it's like so many other medical things, created for staff convenience and control over mom/baby, but having NO basis in evidence the great majority of the time.

[MammaB21]

Not all babies take a deep breath as soon as they enter the world. Some babies are a little slow to start. (Fast births come to mind here where the baby doesn't have time to catch up so to speak). Oxygen is still being transmitted through the cord until it has stopped pulsating. That oxygen is beneficial in ALL births, but especially when baby might need a little extra help. Why cut them off from their life line only to rush them to another table and administer oxygen? I also feel like cutting the cord right away interferes with mother/baby bonding time. I'd prefer my baby on my chest directly after birth with no interruptions for at least the first hour. All of that activity within the first 60 seconds of birth really mess with thing IMO. If there is a true emergency the baby may need care away from me, but that would be the only way I would consent to immediate cord clamping.

[MammaB21]

Oops, double post.

[MittensKittens]

In my understanding, premature cord clamping has quite a few risks attached to it. Cutting the baby off from its oxygen supply immediately following birth is one, a higher chance of anemia is another. Because there are no risks attached to leaving the cord intact until it is done pulsing, that is what I did after my UC.

[nia82]

I thought delayed cord clamping is established to be way better than immediate? With DS we waited until it stopped and then clamped, with this pregnancy we will wait until after the delivery of the placenta.
We won't do cord banking, it's expensive, all those companies reserve the right to do research on the blood and it requires immediate cord clamping (all the companies I read about say so). So it's a big no no for us, we also don't anticipate problems (knock on wood, but no issues in either family so far).

[fruitfulmomma]

I think the only time we cut immediately was my two unplanned hospital births and I really think the second one would have benefited greatly if we had waited. They thought she might have birth defects and had a pediatric team in the room when she was born to whisk her off to nicu. They actually handed her to me and I was looking at her and noticing that she was not breathing well at all, so off they went with her. She turned out to be okay, but I wonder if they had given her a few more minutes with her cord if we could have avoided all that.

My oldest, who was born at home, was not cut right away but sooner than I was hoping because his cord was really short and I was having trouble holding him, but he still probably got 2-3 minutes.

Last baby, also born at home, we didn't cut until after the placenta was birthed. (Don't remember with #4 but I am sure it was at least a few minutes before they did it.)

I firmly believe the blood belong to the baby whose cord it is in. Some say you can still get enough for banking out after the pulsing stops, but I am just not really interested in in it at all.

[*MamaJen*]

You'll find that most parents on this forum do delayed cord clamping (better phrased as refusing premature clamping). There's a lot of research showing that the babies benefit from having that cord blood. One recent study showed a lower incidence of anemia at six months, because the babies got more of the iron rich blood.
If you're in a hospital setting, you don't technically have to wait 45 minutes, though that wouldn't hurt at all. Even waiting three - five minutes gives a lot of benefits. Most OBs cut the cord within 30 - 45 seconds of the birth. Think about it from a mammalian perspective -- what animal chews through the cord within seconds of the baby's birth? None.
On a side note, I invite everyone to laugh hysterically at this incredibly un-fact-checked story about an unplanned, unattended homebirth in which the dad used a piece of dirty hammock string and a pair of construction scissors to cut the umbilical cord and save the baby's life . The reporter, if you can call her that, literally says the dad saved the baby's life by cutting the cord.
http://www.kens5.com/news/East-Texas...-96766524.html

[fruitfulmomma]

story about an unplanned, unattended homebirth in which the dad used a piece of dirty hammock string and a pair of construction scissors to cut the umbilical cord and save the baby's life . The reporter, if you can call her that, literally says the dad saved the baby's life by cutting the cord.

And at the behest of the doctor too.

[mwherbs]

we generally don't cut for quite a while certainly till after it stops pulsing- 45 minutes would not be unheard of even with the placenta in a chux or bowl. for cord blood banking it may still be doable - for one the cord blood bank has reduced the amount they need and the other because the baby shunts areas off and there can still be blood found in some areas of the placenta- look at the vessels on baby side and draw it up from there-

[wombatclay]

In the case of dd2 we had a true shoulder dystocia and she was without oxygen for several minutes... once she was delivered they massaged her on my chest and blew room air over her face while giving me oxygen. That way dd2 got the super oxygen rich blood through the cord for several minutes. We had requested that the cord be left alone, and it was our OB's standard practice anyway (she trained and birthed on the Farm with Ina May), but in this case at least it made a HUGE impact on our daughter's health. I've found some research into oxygen deprivation during birth and the benefits of keeping the cord intact... it's pretty significant!

[XanaduMama]

This is essentially what we did, though I birthed the placenta fairly soon after dd was born (~10 mins?). We kept it in a bowl beside us as we nursed and the MW did my stitches. I was thinking about doing a lotus birth, but decided in the moment to cut the cord. We waited around 45 mins to an hour, I'd estimate--the cord was white and thin and limp by that time. I figure that blood is there for a reason, so the baby should get it!