Pulsing cord?

[Nanners]

Someone mentioned not banking cord blood because it necessitated clamping the cord early. I've always heard it's best to allow it to stop on its own, but I never knew why. Can someone enlighten me? Just curious, thanks!

[Peppamint]

Hey nanners,

My understanding is that as much as 1/3 of a baby's blood volume can be left in the placenta when the cord is clamped too soon.

IMO there's too many compelling reasons to delay clamping and not a bit of evidence that it could cause any harm.

There's the possibility that delaying clamping of the cord gives the baby those cells now, and s/he wouldn't need them later... that perhaps early clamping increases the incidences of disorders where that banked cord blood is needed.

Some links:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/q...&dopt=Abstract

http://www.cordclamp.com/ (this one has archives of cordclamping.com)

[Nanners]

Hmm... that's very interesting. Makes me sort of queasy to think that my son's was probably cut prematurely. I don't really remember.

[lilmissimpatient@c]

I've done a ton of cord blood research, because we're having it done. I spoke with 4 doctors about it, personally, and spent hours in UPenn's library researching the medical journals both for and against clamping. The OB's conclusion was that the baby is born with all of the blood that it needs, but the cord blood is loaded with stem cells, which can essentially act as whatever the baby needs it to (i.e. speed up healing of a displaced shoulder from delivery, etc)

It was a really tough decision for us, but we have a really terrible history of leukemias, lymphomas, ALS and heart disease in our family, and the cord blood can treat, if not cure all of those. So, it just came down to our feelings that the baby would most likely be better off with the cord blood...but compared to battling leukemia, recovering without the extra cells would be a cakewalk for a healthy baby.

I'll get off my soapbox now lol

[Jasmyn's Mum]

Just something else to add, it's not just about the blood. It takes babies a little while to take in O2 through their lungs (to learn to breathe). The cord provides the oxygen they need until they figure it out. To cut the cord prematurely is cutting off their O2 supply, forcing them to breathe. Kinda traumatic, IMO.

[Peppamint]

Casey- can they wait a few moments (even ten minutes) to clamp the cord or do they have to immediately cut the cord to retrieve the cells? We can't personally afford cord banking- but if we could afford it and we could do both delayed clamping AND cord banking then it would be like double insurance.

My youngest brother died of brain cancer so I've seen how cancer and leukemia affects infants/toddlers- that whole wing of the hospital with filled with suffering children. That's part of the reason I've chosen to do so many things the way I have; extending breastfeeding, delayed clamping, no vaccinations, etc.

[lilmissimpatient@c]

Originally Posted by busybusymomma

Casey- can they wait a few moments (even ten minutes) to clamp the cord or do they have to immediately cut the cord to retrieve the cells?

That was what I wanted to do, until I talked to the hemotolgy oncologist. Obviously, they don't cut the cord the second the baby's cord is visible, the cord would be cut once she's up on my belly, and I've got her. Even still, I can't see that being more than a minute or two, tops. If you let it pulse on it's own too long, then you won't have enough blood left to do anything with, kwim?

I was pretty adamant to my ob that "But can't we do both? A little of each?" and she pointed out that in the grande scheme of things going on that day, the umbilical cord just isn't that big. It doesn't hold a tremendous amount of fluid, and it generally comes down to one or the other. i've been outnumbered by doctors. Apparently, nature isn't on the up and up about how *I* think things should work LOL

[Peppamint]

That's what I thought, but I wasn't sure if there was a way to delay and yet have enough left to harvest.

[flowmom]

Originally Posted by lilmissimpatient@c

she pointed out that in the grande scheme of things going on that day, the umbilical cord just isn't that big

One of my biggest regrets about ds' birth is that ds' cord was cut prematurely so that the MWs could more conveniently do suctioning, etc. (he took a while to breathe). I believe that waiting 10 minutes or when the cord stops pulsating (whichever is longer) is very important for helping babies make the transition to a new mode of respiration safely and gently. IMO, Mother Nature does things for a reason...all we have to do is not interfere. Here's Michel Odent's take on premature cord clamping. Drs and medwives like to cut the cord prematurely because it is more convenient for them to do all their newborn "procedures" immediately and with the baby not attached to the mother.