Clamping the cord

katep082012

We are planning to delay cord cutting, and I am wondering if anyone has an idea of about how long it takes for the cord to stop pulsating after the baby is delivered?    

LadyMadrid08

We delayed cord clamping with DD and I think it took just a few minutes for it to stop pulsating.  However, I didn't realize that one "risk" of delaying cord clamping is higher bilirubin levels--jaundice.  Also, my DH has Gilbert's Syndrome (a bilirubin thing) and we didn't connect these two things.  DD ended up very jaundiced and had to stay 3 days in the neo-natal care unit after I was discharged. We won't be delaying cord clamping again for these reasons.  

Just sharing our experience--obviously not everyone's child will be genetically predisposed to get jaundice and of course it is a common thing in newborns, but those two facts I mentioned make me not want to do it again.  Going home without DD (they had no where for me to sleep/stay near her) was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do!

amandaleigh1

I specified in my birth plan a time frame of 3 minutes or when it stops pulsating, whichever comes first. My ob seems to think that you get max benefit by the time 3 minutes has elapsed, so I went with her recommendation.

dosafyre

We just asked them to delay for a couple minutes to help with jaundice...not until it stopped pulsing (because of the jaundice risk to waiting longer). They were happy to oblige and DD#2 had no real jaundice this time (but she was also better at latching correclty, so was getting more fluid probably than DD#1 as well).

anonsouthernbell

We waited about five min w my son ( completely stopped pulsing) and w dd it was about 45 min before it was cut.  Neither one had problems w jaundice...in fact dd was super rosy.

kali55

It was under 5 minutes with DS.  If you can, you should feel the cord...  It's your baby's heartbeat!  Very cool!

bornmommy

We delayed cord clamping but it only took about a minute.  I've heard it can take up to 20 though!

jennyann28

LadyMadrid08:

We delayed cord clamping with DD and I think it took just a few minutes for it to stop pulsating.  However, I didn't realize that one "risk" of delaying cord clamping is higher bilirubin levels--jaundice.  Also, my DH has Gilbert's Syndrome (a bilirubin thing) and we didn't connect these two things.  DD ended up very jaundiced and had to stay 3 days in the neo-natal care unit after I was discharged. We won't be delaying cord clamping again for these reasons.  

Just sharing our experience--obviously not everyone's child will be genetically predisposed to get jaundice and of course it is a common thing in newborns, but those two facts I mentioned make me not want to do it again.  Going home without DD (they had no where for me to sleep/stay near her) was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do!

We had a pretty similar experience. I didn't know that there was an increased risk of jaundice with delayed cord clamping, nor did I know that DH had Gilbert's (he knew, he'd just never told me)! DD was discharged with elevated bilirubin levels, but still within the "normal" range. By our 3 day postpartum check up, she had full-blown jaundice and had to be admitted for 3 days. Foturnately, her room had beds for both DH and I, so we were able to stay with her & I was able to EBF. If DH didn't have Gilbert's & DD's jaundice not been so severe, I'd probably still delay cord clamping for subsequent babies.