Delayed cord clamping

karenmartiinn · July 2015

I'm a ftm and I have been reading about how delaying cord clamping can be a benefit to the baby ! Just want to know everyone's thoughts on this subject and if you've had this done

ChipMonster · July 2015

I wanted to do this with DS but unfortunately, he had to be examined right after birth due to having pooped inside of me (he was fine!). I will aim for LO to have the clamping delayed this time around again. It definitely can't hurt them and you are not paying a lot of money to store the blood that you may never need. Why not give all that great blood to baby right away?

Hiswill4me · July 2015

It is great for baby! In fact, it is standard practice at the hospital where I work!

failuretofly · July 2015

Studies have shown that infants whose cord clamping was delayed a minimum of 45 seconds up to 5 minutes showed many benefits including lower rates of anemia, lower incidence of cerebral hemorrhage, lower grade of cerebral hemorrhage if it did occur among other reasons (can't remember them all off the top of my head). I found this series of videos extremely helpful and informational about cord clamping;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cX-zD8jKne0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDLywaBTd-o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYhWzAjjRu8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5CelB63QR8 

Love4littlethings24 · July 2015

I've researched this a bit and found some really positive pros on it. Why not give the baby all of the nutrients and blood that's in their cord? I'm very interested in this and immediate skin on skin and delayed bathing, at least for a few hours just to get that bond and try to nurse. I'm still researching though but so far I think I'll do delayed cord clamping.

Knottie1452445632 · July 2015

I did it with my last baby and compared to my older two she was more well after birth. That's not to say the other 2 were poorly it's just they both had jaundice and research suggests it can prevent this all together. She also was delivered and put straight in my chest and allowed to breast feed almost immediately. I had on my birth plan that I didn't want any health checks done right away (unless necessary for the health of the baby) and I was therefore given about 20 minutes to just cuddle and bond before they did all their checks. I'm not sure if it's related but she also slept very well the first night (3.5 hours straight) and is and had always been a contented baby (now sleeps 12 hours a night) - compared to the other two who were always fractious and woke every hour! So yes id say do it - it can only benefit baby xxxx

Love4littlethings24 · July 2015

Mumtobe+4 said:
I did it with my last baby and compared to my older two she was more well after birth. That's not to say the other 2 were poorly it's just they both had jaundice and research suggests it can prevent this all together. She also was delivered and put straight in my chest and allowed to breast feed almost immediately. I had on my birth plan that I didn't want any health checks done right away (unless necessary for the health of the baby) and I was therefore given about 20 minutes to just cuddle and bond before they did all their checks. I'm not sure if it's related but she also slept very well the first night (3.5 hours straight) and is and had always been a contented baby (now sleeps 12 hours a night) - compared to the other two who were always fractious and woke every hour! So yes id say do it - it can only benefit baby xxxx

Thank you for sharing your story! This is a lot of what I want to do and I'm curious if others have had similar responses from instant skin on skin and delayed clamping. I don't see how it can't hurt, of course if no problems arise and birth goes smoothly.

karenmartiinn · July 2015

I completely agree with you all ! If it benefits the baby then why not try it , and of course I understand if there is any complications that the baby would have to be checked right away and delayed cord clamping would not be possible . But I'm definitely going to talk to my Obgyn about this and put it in my birth plan along with skin on skin as soon as possible

amargaret24 · July 2015

Glad this thread came up.... I'm a FTM and have not heard of skin on skin until reading this.. I always found it slightly odd to have the baby whisked away upon birth, though I didn't know there was a term for the opposite. Very cool!

Paige6410 · July 2015

I want to talk to my OB about this. Since I'll be having a RCS, I'm not sure how that will work, but worth a discussion. Both of my boys had a slight stint under the party lights for jaundice, it would be nice to avoid that this time.
I have never been able to have skin to skin within the first few hours, and will be seeing if I can do that this time.

Snoopylovesbelle · July 2015

Some hospitals do family centered c-sections now. The hospital where I deliver started doing them. The baby stays with mom the whole time and skin to skin and nursing can happen as soon as you are out of the OR.
It would be worth talking to your OB about.

holocene · July 2015

I did it with both my babies and it was wonderful. Both my babies were so rudy and did incredibly well nursing and recovering from their journey. I know that delayed cord clamping wasn't the only cause of their easy first few days, but I certainly think it helped.

Flyingtrouble · July 2015

I had it all written on my birth plan, and they thankfully followed it perfectly! My LO cord was delayed, she went straight on me and we were left alone as a family for just over an hour. It was fantastic. She even did the breast crawl (look at the videos online it's amazing) and I honestly think that all of that is the reason she is such a healthy happy girl, she is 15 months and has literally only had a cold or illness twice!
After the hour they took her and weighed her, wiped her down (she had pooed) and then she spent half an hour skin on skin with hubby while I showered! She wasn't bathed until the next day.

I even had on my plan that if a C section was required or for whatever reason she could not be put straight on me that she would go skin to skin right away with hubby. They were happy with that too.

Read up and be informed on the decisions you have. My gyny made me quantify each decision I made on my birth plan and one of them he highly disagreed with (the injection to get the placenta out) and I hadn't really looked into it too much and had said no almost because someone else had! I saw his side pretty quickly. He didn't even bother arguing any of the rest because I knew my facts and wasn't just choosing things on a whim.

erincjackson · July 2015

@Flyingtrouble I want to try the breast crawl with this baby! I've seen videos and they are amazing!

claireloSC · July 2015

I've heard this is pretty much standard practice now, so yeah, I'd say go for it if it you can.

TurtleMeg · July 2015

I'm A FTM and have not heard of this so thanks for posting!

amyelise25 · July 2015

So if you do delayed cord clamping, which we totally want to do, does that mean that you can't do cord blood banking? We aren't interested in banking, but I'm curious.

emzie54 · July 2015

Yeah, you have to choose between the two @amyelise25

EC2016 · July 2015

I plan on having this in my birth plan. I had mentioned the uninterrupted hour skin to skin to the midwife (who I did not like) and she acted like I was dumb and didn't know what I was talking about. I've chosen a different doctor in the practice so I'll talk to her about that later. I'm going to put it in my plan and hope they let me follow it if there are no health problems.

skfg · July 2015

I did delayed cord clamping w/DS. As a pp mentioned, a lot of hospitals/docs are adopting this. I highly recommend it.

nanamp · July 2015

@amyelise25 - In terms of cord banking, from what I've read and heard from doctor friends, is that it may be a bit of a scam.

The companies that do it are for profit and still charge you if you don't end up collecting enough blood for it to ever be useful. You may even continue paying storage fees forever on something that can never be used.

On the other hand, there are public cord banks, which means that anyone who needs it can use it if someone else is a match. These tend to be taken care of more properly but only some hospitals do it.

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