Cord cut delay

alexam2012

I read that if you're not banking the cord blood it can be beneficial to delay the cutting for about 5 to 10 minutes. It said that a lot of their blood supply is in the cord and it can help with respiratory function and overall health. If everything goes well and baby doesn't need to be taken away quickly for any reason I think I may do this and also kangaroo. Thoughts?

dkleid

So I don't know what Kangaroo is, but I have talked to my OB about delayed cord clamping and it is her offices standard practice to delay the clamping and cutting.  Might be something to talk to your OB about at your next appointment.  They might do this already and you might not even realize it!

Emilywooddesign

I'm 100% doing delayed cord clamping ( if all goes well and there is no emergency) apparently the cord stops pulsing after about 3 minutes so it's no time at all to wait for it to be cut.

alexam2012

Thank you ladies! I will definitely bring it up at my next appointment. Kangaroo method is when they lay the baby on the mother right away and do all the initial stuff from there instead of taking it away. I will probably talk to the doctor about this too as I don't know the specifics it just sounded interesting. It seems like there are so many options these days compared to 9 years ago when I had my daughter!

laceymarie3

 @dkleid  Kangaroo care or skin to skin contact. They are used interchangeably and have been shown to provide many benefits to baby as well as mom. There is a wealth of information out there about the benefits. It was what my master's thesis was on, pretty amazing!

sschwege

Yes, we did it with our first two and plan to with this baby as well.  Only about 3 minutes or so, just until the cord stopped pulsating.  Both of my babies were taken from my arms almost immediately for breathing problems, I don't know for sure but I wonder if that's why they felt comfortable letting me hold them even for a few minutes, they knew they were still getting some help from the cord.

Sammy K

My OB's standard is kangaroo and minor delay in cord cutting. She told me there are risks in waiting too long. We agreed to wait about 3 min. Bottom line is to talk to your OB and make sure you're on the same page.

jessieR358

I read some studies that the delayed cord cutting was great for premie babies to get that extra blood but that term babies didn't benefit as much. Jaundice can increase with delayed cord cutting in term babies. I'm just going to let my ob do his thing with the cord.

pixieprincss

With DS2, we waited until the cord stopped pulsing and then I cut it. With DS1 (hospital birth), we requested a delay but baby was in distress, so they did it right away. We'll wait with this baby.  As for skin-to-skin, even with DS1 in distress, the OB put him on my belly/chest (as far as the cord would go) until the cord was cut and the crash table was ready. With DS2, baby stayed with me/ on me for an hour or more before we did anything else--weighing, length, etc. (not a hospital birth). I needed sutures, so DH held him during that in case I twitched, but he stayed skin-to-skin with DH instead of me.

MixedCurlsXo

This is something that I keep forgetting to look into, thanks for making this thread @alexam2012

henrytviii

I think the jury is still out on whether this had benefits. If you want to do this make sure you remind the doctor and your labor support person. I had it in my birth plan and my doc was all for it in an "it can't hurt to wait" sense. But she was out of town for a single 12 hour period and I ended up with her colleague. He was awesome during the delivery and I was in great hands but he was in his sixties and he had DH cut the cord right away. It was such an exciting moment of course that DH didn't pause to protest. I was in rough shape and my Doula was focused on me. The look of horror/failure on her face was so ridiculous that I started laughing and she joined in. It was a nice private moment for us actually since no one else understood. Later I learned that she wasn't concerned about the quick cord cutting, the look of terror was that she had failed helping me get my wish. We had skin to skin, a gentle exam, baby wasn't taken off my chest to be weighed for many hours etc. This was the one I had to let go and all was okay. I'm not going to worry about it this time around.