Natural Birth

Cutting the Cord Immediatly vs. Waiting?

Re: Cutting the Cord Immediatly vs. Waiting?

  • This is a good article arguing for delayed cord clamping, that has facts and stuff:

    https://academicobgyn.com/2009/12/03/delayed-cord-clamping-should-be-standard-practice-in-obstetrics/

    DS1 - Feb 2008

    DS2 - Oct 2010 (my VBAC baby!)

  • Our plan was to delay clamping and cutting the cord and that was our midwife's standard practice.  It didn't matter though because he was tangled in the cord so they had to cut it right away.
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  • Our plan is to wait....let LO get the last nutrients she can from me.  But like pp said, if it has to be cut then so it be.




    however long the night, dawn will break.

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  • With my #2, my MW waited until the placenta was delivered before cutting. ? ?







     

  • Leboyer provided what I think is the most clear reason why to delay cord cutting: 

    In his landmark book Birth Without Violence, Frederick Leboyer writes:

    "[Nature] has arranged it so that during the dangerous passage of birth, the child is receiving oxygen from two sources rather than one: from the lungs and from the umbilicus. Two systems functioning simultaneously, one relieving the other: the old one, the umbilicus, continues to supply oxygen to the baby until the new one, the lungs, has fully taken its place. However, once the infant has been born and delivered from the mother, it remains bound to her by this umbilicus, which continues to beat for several long minutes: four . . . five .. . sometimes more.

    Oxygenated by the umbilicus, sheltered from anoxia, the baby can settle into breathing without danger and without shock. At leisure. .. . In addition, the blood has plenty of time to abandon its old route (which leads to the placenta) and progressively to fill the pulmonary circulatory system. During this time, in parallel fashion, an orifice closes in the heart, which seals off the old route forever. In short, for an average of four or five minutes, the newborn infant straddles two worlds. Drawing oxygen from two sources, it switches gradually from the one to the other, without a brutal transition. One scarcely hears a cry. What is required for this miracle to take place? Only a little patience."

    Patience is precisely the ingredient that is missing in hospital birth. There is no time for patient birth in the hospital. Hospital beds must be "turned over" for the birth machine to be adequately fed. If waiting occurs, it is not patient waiting but anxious waiting, "hurry up and birth" waiting. Your obstetrician, will not simply stand there holding your squirming, slippery baby in his hands. He has things to do, and the baby needs to be washed, weighed, vaccinated, PKU tested, Apgar rated, temporarily blinded by silver nitrate, and bottlefed with unscientifically formulated formula. The nurses are waiting for him to give your baby to them, so he can be isolated from human touch and observed for signs of malfunction. Your baby is, after all, simply a machine that either works or doesn't: neither love nor respect enters the hospital birth equation.

    Your doctor does not hesitate. The cord is cut, your baby's life-blood flows. All is well.  The birth machine has created the baby product and will bill accordingly. The obstetrician on duty can go back to his office and meet with other potential baby producers. Nurses can take their little bundle of joy to the newborn nursery and mother him to death by abandoning him. Don't worry. It's all part of the plan.

    Tell your obstetrician that it is okay for him to cut your baby's  umbilical cord right away if it's okay for you to plug your OB's mouth and nose with Silly Putty for a few minutes.

  • My Birth Center waits until the cord stops pulsing to cut it.  I believe it's because it makes the transition for the baby a little easier.
  • We waited, DH cut the cord and he also sortof got to catch.  He was holding my hand and DS was coming and we had it in our Birth Plan to have him catch and so they were like...you better come if you want to catch and I had to push him away and he caught DS as his legs came out.
  • We are cutting the cord immediately. I understand both points of view and this is just the way I chose. Some of it has to due with the fact that DH doesn't want to hold baby until she is good and clean. So if we cut the cord it makes it easier to get everything done and DD cleaned up so we can have good family time.
  • If I would have delivered prior to my due date, I would have delayed cutting the cord.

    Since we are past the due date (and after tomorrow will officially be post-date) we are cutting the cord immediately so that we can donate the cord blood. 

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  • Delayed cord clamping + Breast Crawl = Cool Stuff.

    I delayed because of the article that the first poster mentioned, but I'm glad we did it because it was just really nice to have everything slooooooooooow down after he was born.  Because we delayed clamping, we also delayed everything else - weighing and measuring etc. 

    On a slightly related note, the breast crawl is amazing to watch!!  I had to stop BF early because of some medical stuff, but I will always treasure that moment right after he was born, when he latched on all by himself, while he was still attached to me. 

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