Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
Apr
21
Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
“We Need To Cut The Cord Now Or Your Baby Will Die!”
“We need to cut the cord now or your baby will die!” – OB to mother immediately after she birthed a very wiggly, crying, baby when the mother wanted to keep the cord intact.
There are 58 comments to this post.
“You need to back that up with documentation before the baby dies! Fast!”
Isn’t it sometimes requested that the cord be kept in tact for a short period of time? I also know that the OB who delivered my son didn’t immediately cut the cord. He waited until things settled down and let my husband do it. As far as I know my son lived through it 
.
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You need to be on your back or the baby will die!
You need to let the nurses warm him for two hours in the nursery or your baby will die!
You need to supplement your milk with formula or your baby will die!
You need to sign up with Verizon or your baby will die!
Where does it end?
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Guggie Daly Reply:
April 21st, 2010 at 4:46 pm (Quote)
Ah yes, when the nurse found out my baby was born at home, she grabbed my baby’s head to shake her to see “if she was alive” b/c she “hasn’t been in a warmer!”
I had my mom take my daughter and leave as if the building was on fire lol.
(I had gone in for stitches).
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Michelle Potter Reply:
April 21st, 2010 at 4:51 pm (Quote)
Oh my gosh, are you kidding?? The first time I read that I thought you were being sarcastic. Did a nurse really SHAKE your newborn???
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Aron Reply:
April 22nd, 2010 at 8:08 am (Quote)
Whoah! My eyes just popped out of my head and I am now typing blindly as they roll across the floor. She SHOOK your baby!?!? to “see if she was alive”??? Holy carp and tuna, there just aren’t sufficient words….
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Jane Reply:
April 22nd, 2010 at 9:20 am (Quote)
I hope you mean “jostled her while she was lying gently in her mother’s arms.” :-b Because otherwise,that warrants a call to CPS. The first thing they tell you in the hospital (after “Here, sign this” is never to shake the baby!
BTW, if the nurse can’t tell an infant is alive via respirations, color,movement or pulse, then I’m not sure what shaking was going to tell her.
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You need to be on your back or the baby will die!You need to let the nurses warm him for two hours in the nursery or your baby will die!You need to supplement your milk with formula or your baby will die!You need to sign up with Verizon or your baby will die!Where does it end?
Lol the verizon one cracked me up.
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This OB has clearly never seen a lotus birth…or all of the perfectly healthy living babies who survived it! Isn’t it amazing that you can get PAID for your ignorance?
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Heather Reply:
April 22nd, 2010 at 1:18 am (Quote)
Yeah, I think of lotus birth whenever health care practitioners or shows go off on the cord needing to be tied and cut to “save” the baby *rolls eyes* I honestly don’t believe most of them even know what that is.
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GAMZu Reply:
May 9th, 2010 at 8:45 pm (Quote)
Yes, the first thing I learned that should be done if the baby comes unexpectedly is to tie off the cord with anything available, like a shoelace.
WHAT?
Let’s see… allow the baby to remain all nice and comfortable and safe with cord intact, or introduce the newborn and the mother to SHOE germs?
Tough call.
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so what do they do with babies that come out not beathing? oh yeah! they cut the cord right away, cutting off the only remaining source ofoxygen, and then rush them off to NICU to rescucitate them!
I’m so glad my 4th was born at home… not breathing, and was able to, you know, have oxygen while we got her started on that.
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Michelle Potter Reply:
April 21st, 2010 at 4:56 pm (Quote)
When my 3rd was born not breathing the paramedics (long story) didn’t cut her cord immediately, either. I guess they teach that in paramedic school, but not medical school??
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Heather P Reply:
April 21st, 2010 at 6:07 pm (Quote)
Of course. Then they can say that they “saved” the baby because the baby wasn’t breathing when they were born. If they don’t prove that they save babies how are they going to get the mom to agree to come to their hospital for the next birth.
Some moms, like me, will see the stupidity of this and not want their future babies deprived of oxygen when they’re not born breathing. My second baby was born in the same condition as her hospital born sister. Not breathing, but not in any danger because she was still getting oxygen from her cord. She started breathing in under a minute on her own terms and was cut off from her oxygen supply and forced to scream.
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cheeks023 Reply:
April 21st, 2010 at 6:59 pm (Quote)
It’s interesting that they believe cutting the baby’s oxygen source prematurely is going to prevent the baby from dying? On what planet does depriving someone of oxygen save their lives?
2 of my 3 born at home were born not breathing immediately. No one ever, EVER mentioned cutting the cord, neither did they grab them from me to begin any sort of resuscitation. They said, put your baby against your chest skin to skin, rub your baby’s back and talk to them. The cord is still pulsing, so they are still getting oxygen, they just need help with that first breath. Sure enough we got a first breath…and even more interesting to note is that neither of them cried. They just took in a deep breath and then looked around from the comfort and safety of my chest.
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VW Reply:
April 22nd, 2010 at 3:43 am (Quote)
Mine was born with a collapsed lung after shoulder dystocia and was pretty floppy and blue, and they said “We need to cut the cord right away” to work on her (we’d planned on delayed cord clamping and they seemed on board with that).
Only later did I realize that it made very little sense to cut off her only oxygen supply, and was probably done mostly because the resuscitation table is BOLTED to the wall on the other side of the room. Why oh why is the resus equipment not portable?! They could have worked on her between my legs with the cord intact!
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Jane Reply:
April 22nd, 2010 at 4:47 am (Quote)
My daughter was born not-breathing and they wanted to move her to the warmer table to work on resuscitating her and yes, they cut the cord immediately because they couldn’t move her to the desired workspace without doing that. (Although I’m not sure why: they might have been able to reach it with the cord intact, and frankly, we’ve seen they don’t care about tugging the cord anyhow.)
My son, the next birth, stymied them because he also came out not breathing but the cord was wrapped around his body in so many places that they couldn’t immediately figure out a place to cut the cord. 
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Haven’t you ladies heard that the placenta starts pumping black bile poison directly into the baby as soon as it has exited the uterus? If they don’t cut the cord right away to prevent the venemous flow, they’ll have to break out the leeches and bleed the baby to get out the bad blood!
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Allison Reply:
February 5th, 2011 at 2:26 am (Quote)
Bile salts help the baby get rid of biliruben since their liver functions operate at about 85% up until 2 weeks old. It is far from poison. It’s the opposite.
My friend’s pediatrician just told her the danger was that her baby would have his mother’s blood in him… completely ridiculous as well since the placenta NEVER transfers Mother’s blood to the baby!!
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This was mine. The doctor insisted my baby wouldn’t start breathing unless they took her. (didn’t make any sense considering she was crying very well for not having air in her lungs) They also told me, during labor at 6cm dilated, that I would have to leave the hospital and birth the baby elsewhere unless I agreed to let them cut the cord immediately afterward. I wish I had taken them up on the offer and gone home. I didn’t agree then, but after fighting with the doctors through my entire labor I gave in afterward and let them cut the cord before I was comfortable with it. I was just tired of him getting in my face and wanted to relax after having pushed a baby out.
The “gentleman waits for the placenta to pass” was mine too. It bugged me at the time because my husband and I were both genuinely curious to know the answer. Looking back at it, it was funny, but at the time it seemed very rude, probably because the OB was so adamantly misinformed about evidence-based care. It was all just a frustrating situation.
I birthed my second child at home, unassisted in my bathroom, and left the cord intact for 5 hours
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You know…whenever you read a book, article, or watch a clip on Emergency Childbirth, it says to leave the cord intact and let a doctor cut it.
And yet…if you deliver a baby at the hospital, your healthy baby will die unless the doctor cuts the cord right away. *rolls eyes*
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Jane Reply:
April 22nd, 2010 at 4:17 pm (Quote)
Because you see it’s the presence of the doctor which creates a medical crisis that necessitates the cutting of the cord. If no doctor or paramedic is available, you have to wait and leave the cord alone. BUt once they arrive, the clock starts ticking.
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My husband has had extensive emergency care training for the non-professional (i.e. he’s not an EMT, but in a wilderness emergency, he can act like one) and all his textbooks say something like, “in an emergency childbirth, unless it is wound around the baby’s neck tightly and preventing descent, don’t cut the cord until an actual medical provider arrives.” Interesting how incredibly inconsistent this stuff is.
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Knitted in the Womb Reply:
April 26th, 2010 at 9:33 pm (Quote)
And yet 911 operators almost universally seem to direct people to tie off the cord (with a dirty shoelace–YUCK!) on those “I didn’t know I was pregnant” type shows. Interestingly, I had a client have an unintentional home birth, and when I got to listen to the 911 tape, I noticed that the operator never told the dad to tie off the cord. 
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I’m learning neonatal resuscitation now, and I’m puzzled by this. It makes no sense to me to cut off the baby’s only supply of oxygen if it’s fighting to breath. I can think of three reasons that they might use – one, the oxygen sometimes comes out of a wall unit, (which is absurd, I know) and two, if, god forbid, the baby needs chest compressions, they would need a solid surface underneath to make them effective, and three, a major resuscitation effort needs more than two pairs of hands, sometimes, and there might not be enough room. Also, maybe they’re afraid the mother would get in the way. (Don’t hit me, don’t hit me!!
But, a portable oxygen tank and a board under the baby would do the trick, and moms want their baby’s to be ok, so they wouldn’t sabotage legitimate efforts to save their baby, so I still don’t get it.
If any doctors or nurses could chime in here to explain, I would really appreciate it!!
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Knitted in the Womb Reply:
April 26th, 2010 at 9:35 pm (Quote)
I think you’ve pretty much got it! If the bed has been broken down, the only place to put the baby down with the cord intact is on mom’s abdomen, which isn’t firm enough if you need to do compressions.
Seems to me though that if they would need to do compressions, they could clamp/cut the cord then.
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Sheva Reply:
April 27th, 2010 at 5:28 am (Quote)
Ok, at the course yesterday, I learned that there is a trend in some countries to start doing full resuscitation without cutting the cord! Even at C-sections!
They’re simply moving the resus bed and warming table to right near the mother.
Rocket science, right?
I also learned that cutting the cord immediately and not allowing that last 60(!) or so ounces of blood that stays in the placenta until right before or right after birth to get to the baby is like an adult losing about 1500 ml of blood!!
That’s a major hemorrhage!
We learned that within the first four minutes most of that blood gets to the baby, so if you could just stall the docs at least that long…
Some tips the instructor gave us:
First, of course, make sure to bring it up during the pregnancy.
And, at the birth, say “For religious reasons we don’t want the cord cut yet.” (Doesn’t make a difference what religion, docs are very big into respecting cultural diversity.)
Or, if the father (or doula, although they could get into more trouble) sees the doc picking up the scissors, point to it and “by mistake” touch the tip and say, “she doesn’t want that yet”.
One caregiver at the class said one of her mothers took the baby on her chest, and then covered and sort of twisted herself and the baby into the sheet, so the doc had to unwrap everything to find where the cord was, and she made it hard for him (by mistake, of course).
Studies are showing that cutting the cord early is NOT good, and that waiting is safer for the baby.
But she said trends don’t change because of studies, they change because of enough patients insisting enough times.
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Knitted in the Womb Reply:
April 27th, 2010 at 6:10 am (Quote)
Sheva, I’ve often said that it seems to me that the resus bed could go right next to the mother–it isn’t bolted to the wall in the hospitals in my area. And when my second daughter needed oxygen at her birth, they were able to give it to her in my arms using the O2 line that would typically be used for the mother in labor–I had an OB that supported delayed clamping.
People do need to keep in mind that the cord gets double clamped before it gets cut. If a clamp goes on the cord, whether or not it is cut is a moot point–blood is no longer flowing. 
As for touching the scissors…I’m not sure that all care providers really care about sterility on cord scissors. Like I said…911 operators often advise people to tie off cords with dirty shoe laces. I’ve seen an OB lay the hemostats for clamping the cord right on the bed between the mother’s legs before the baby is born–reaching back to the sterile tray after the baby is born might allow the cord to pulse TOO LONG after the baby is born you know, and the baby will die from all that evil black bile being pumped through it. (insert eye roll–seriously, the mom at this birth had inquired about delayed clamping prenatally and was told by the OB “I don’t feel comfortable with that,” and the mother did not push the issue. I swear I’ve never seen a cord clamped so fast–couldn’t have been more than 5 seconds after the baby’s feet were out–the baby was laid on the bed, and the cord was clamped, THEN the baby was handed to the mother.)
Not all care providers will bow to the “religious reasons” argument either, though it is worth a shot. I know a mom who for religious reasons requested that the first food her child receive be prunes. This was a serious request. But the hospital staff refused to comply, and in her words, “acted as if I wanted to feed him poison.” So in order to abide by her religion, she had to delay her first breastfeeding until the hospital staff was out of the room so that she could give the baby the touch of baby food prunes on his tongue that was required to comply with the directives of their religion.
It is SO true that trends will not change until patients demand it.
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Jane Reply:
April 27th, 2010 at 7:03 am (Quote)
Frankly, the way some doctors react to a perfectly normal request like delaying cord clamping, I think it’s definitely a ‘religious reasons’ thing, except that obstetrics has become its own religion with its own regulations, its own rituals, and its own central tenets that don’t actually have any basis in evidence-based medicine.
The fact that doctors cannot justify through evidence why they don’t want to delay cord clamping, and take steps to defy the patients’ clearly-stated wishes, bespeaks a fanaticism that isn’t explicable any other way. Things like episiotomy, which studies almost universally agree should not be routine, are routine for many doctors.
I believe doctors insist on cutting that cord right away because it makes a powerful statement to the family that the hospital is in control here: it can separate the inseparable and then by its generosity brings you back together again, and therefore you form as a family only inasmuch as the hospital permits, creating a docile patient who reveres her life-saving doctor and now understands herself as a defective machine in need of saving.
Cutting the cord immediately has no medical benefit to the baby. None. But it’s a very powerful symbolic gesture. At the very least, after an uncomplicated nonmedicated delivery, if there’s been no episiotomy, cutting the cord uses the surgeon’s skills in some small way.
So really: who benefits? Mom? Baby? Or doctor?
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Haven’t you all ever heard of umbilical corditis?
It’s life-threatening, and is contracted in the unfortunate event that the baby and cord are attached for longer than a second after birth. The only way to save the baby is to sever the cord immediately. This must be done without haste, should the baby get too much oxygen from it’s most natural source. The only way to be sure that the baby will not suffer long term is the very happy sound of a screaming newborn as it’s taken away from his/her mother immediately after its life has been saved by the medical team.
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I’ll try. Sheva, as you’re aware, there is primary apnea and secondary apnea.
short of the baby immediately crying, providers of mother’s care can’t immediately tell which it is by just looking at a baby not breathing. Each apnea above requires the same approach by the staff with secondary apnea requiring further intervention and possibly drugs. Most non breathing baby’s are experiencing primary apneas only requiring clearing the airway, usually with bulb syringe and stimulation
like rubbing the baby’s back. Baby can certainly go to mom’s chest for this with cord intact,IF the delivering physician will let go of the baby and give it to a nurse that is natural childbirth friendly. Usually the delivering physician will take the baby immediately to the warmer. If the baby does not start breathing within a minute on mom’s chest, then I’ll ask the physician to cut the cord so I can take the little one to the warmer where everything is at, in the event we need to code the baby. I’ve found that even telling a physician of parent’s wishes doesn’t mean they will honor it, especially the one of not cutting the cord till it stops pulsing. If the baby has had a good tracing, tight nuchal cord not present,or meconium , then no big deal. Baby can be taken to mom’s chest with just clearing the airway with a bulb syringe
on mom’s chest and stimulation by mom or nurse to get the little one to take that breath that will open all the aveloi( air pockets) in the lungs that have been closed in utero. Remember, blood from the placenta will mostly bypass the lungs and the breathing that babies have practiced in utero has been with amniotic fluid in and out of the lungs. The squeezing of the chest at birth takes care of a lot of the fluid but sometimes it doesn’t. C/S babies are at higher risk of breathing difficulties d/t not having their chest squeezed during vaginal delivery. Now if this same baby held by the physician, bulb suctioned and stimulated has not started breathing by about 30 seconds and not pink then the MD will cut the cord so he can go to the warmer for me to bag the baby and force air into the aveoli (the first breath requires more pressure to open the aveoli regardless of natural or by mechanical means. The same is true if the baby has gone directly to the chest and suctioning with bulb syringe and stimulation has not started the breathing process, I will ask for cord clamping and cutting of cord so I can take the baby to the warmer to make further assessments beginning with bagging. If unsuccessful, then I’ll suction deeper down the throat and try to get air in, advancing more into resusitation if required ( chest compressions) Now at this point, I’ll be calling for the NICU team to assist. Remember, we have about 4 to 6 minutes before brain damage can occur. I don’t know how much O2 is delivered via the cord once delivered. I’ve never read any studies nor have I been present at a really natural, natural birth not attended by an OBGYN so I could ask the midwife. If anyone knows of literature I could read, I’d be interested. VW’s delivery was a neonatal emergency with collapsed lungs on one side. I suspect the shoulder dystocia was a little more involved with the baby being blue, not breathing and I bet his eyes were open. This little fella had a collapsed lung. Was there a fractured clavicle or problems with the brachial plexus (arm)? Nicu had to insert a chest tube to expand the lung on that side. A collapsed lung can cause shifting of the heart in the chest. Please trust me when I say that what they did was very appropriate.
Ok, I know you guys hate it when I mention this but here goes….The nurse once entering the room and introducing herself has established what is called a duty to the patient. In lawsuits, if a nurse doesn’t follow policies and procedures and damage has been done by not doing so then she’ll be quilty of breech of duty. As much as I want to give all my patients and families a wonderful experience, I have to remember I am accountable to the hospital, my employer and the State Board of Nursing which have expectations of me. I don’t always like it but they write my paycheck.
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VW Reply:
April 23rd, 2010 at 12:48 am (Quote)
Thanks for clearing that up, Nurse. No fractured clavicle or brachial plexus injury, thankfully. They kept her on CPAP until they could confirm the collapsed lung with x-ray and then place the chest tube in the NICU. She was a-ok after that.
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Cindy Lybolt Reply:
May 29th, 2010 at 8:38 pm (Quote)
Some of your transitional physiology is off. In utero, only about 5% ob blood flow goes to the lungs, that is correct. But, after birth, if the cord is left intact, the placental transfusion opens the circulatory system and floods the lungs with blood. As the capillaries surrounding the aveoli expand, opening the aveoli and pulling the lung fluid into the circulatory system by osmotic pressure. The first breath can be very gentle and does not require hard crying, stimulation or a bulb syringe to stimulate it. Actually, in neonatal resus, you wait one minute before the initial evaluation for the first Apgars. Allowing the cord to stay intact keeps the baby warm and oxygenationated as well nicely ph balanced. The placenta is a resuscitation organ and premature amputation is damaging to the baby. As well as causing hypovolemia and seperating the baby from his oxygen supply, premature clamping deprives the the iron stores in the placenta and can result in long term anemia for the child. There are tons of studies available online from George Morley, MD, cordclamping.com.
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I lost my baby at 36 weeks they said when they cut the cord her heart stopped they worked on her for 15 mins my hospital didnt have a nicu unit and she only weighed 3lbs 15oz so tiny but before they did cs her heart beat was up to 150 i dont understand what went wrong just looking for answers
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Carrie, How very horrible that must have been for you and your family. This intense need to understand what happened is normal. As women, we have a tendency to blame ourselves, that we did something to cause our baby to die. Then in the back of our minds we think things like, Why didn’t I sense this, why I didn’t I come straight to the hospital when the baby wasn’t moving, etc, etc….I was convinced my loss was because of not taking my prenatal vitamins on a regular basis. for other women, it may be going out dancing or being intimate with their significant other the night before. It’s a hard place to be when there aren’t any obvious answers. Then, there is the fact that men and women grieve differently. Your baby was SGA or small for gestational age at 36 weeks. Did you have any illness ie: hypertension, diabetes, lupus, sickle cell? I ask since these illnesses can cause babies to be underweight. Why were you in the hospital at 36 weeks; had a problem been identified like a BPP that was low? Were you being induced for a particular reason or you came in laboring? There are many things that the tracing can tell us: 1. heart rate 2. reaerves on board that baby has set aside to use in stressful events like labor. 3.How the baby is handling labor? Did you have an infection?
Was a autopy done? Was the placenta sent to pathology? There is a small possibility that your heart rate was being picked up, not the baby’s. Have someone review the material? It really is difficult to even venture an educated quess at this point. Thea
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JulietsButterfly had this to say,
May 22, 2010 @ 4:56 am (Quote)
Wow. I don’t do the delayed cord cutting, but my OB asked my DH, mom, and two friends, as well as myself “Who’s going to cut the cord?” and that surely had to take a while. In the end, I was the one that cut DS’s cord. Having done it, I’ll say it’s one of the squishiest, spongey, difficult things I’ve ever cut. I can’t believe that anyone would try to cut it on their own or even clamp it off with an odds and ends tie. You’d have to wrap a shoelace pretty darn tight to clamp the cord in an “emergency” birth.
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So… when the “What to Expect” book says that if your baby arrives and you’re alone and help is on the way, to just hold it until they come, don’t worry about the cord, but cover up and keep the baby close to you. Just think of all those poor babies dying because they weren’t born where they could have their cords cut immediately! Talk about ignorance!!!
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Ladies,
There is an article on WEBMD about When to cut the umbilical cord.It weighs in the pros and cons. I thought some of you would be interested.
Thea
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Sarah Dorrance-Minch Reply:
May 30th, 2010 at 4:44 am (Quote)
Thanks. Will look it up.
Did you see the article published in a medical journal – I think it might have been JAMA, either that or the Lancet – about the dangers of cutting the cord while still pulsing, except in a clear emergency, like a too-short cord being wrapped tightly around the baby’s neck, to the point of causing distress? Published in the late fifties or early sixties. Early cord cutting appears to be a time-saving measure introduced as part of the whole “active management of labour” fad in the seventies and eighties.
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GAMZu Reply:
May 30th, 2010 at 9:21 am (Quote)
The funniest thing… I was reading a mainstream parenting magazine and there was an article about birth-day jitters. One of the things addressed was giving birth en-route to the hospital. They said that it’s no reason to worry, as long as you keep the baby swaddled and tie off the cord.
Later on in the same magazine there was a blurb about all benefits of delayed cord clamping/cutting, such as lower chance for breathing distress and even better cognitive skills. LOL. They could have at least put it the two articles in different magazines.
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Cindy,
Thanks for the update and yes I’m aware of the 5% to the lungs. The other part about circulation causing aveoli to open if unfamiliar to me and is not taught in NRP here in the States. I am going to take your studies to one of the best NNP I know and ask why we aren’t doing this. I’ll update you as I receive information. Thanks for the heads up.
P.S. It may be a situation like with CPR, we had to go so many years and see we hadn’t made a difference to achieve one of the biggest reforms to CPR. I’ll find out because now you have me curious
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Cindy,
I took your response to one of our Neonatal Nurse Practioners. Here on the east coast of America, our Nicu has the best reputation for micro premature babies even better than Duke. So, I feel they know what they are talking about. The NNP I spoke to told me she has a graduate student that is writing her thesis on delayed cord blood clamping but she is unaware of changes to NRP at this time. However, there are studies being done and I can see changes in the future. We are taught that the first breath requires the greatest pressure to force the fluid out of the aveoli and into the circulatory system. The Practioner I spoke with gave me a site to do a literature search in addition I will read the material you recommended.One of the Neonatologist will be back at work tomorrow and I’ll ask him what the deal is. Thea
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Actually, Karen Strange teaches this in her NRP classes, here in the States. George Morley’s site, cordclamping.com is archived. you can find it with a google search. The newest I just found from March of this year, focus on the transfer of stem cells to the baby in the placental transfusion. All of the information is out there to learn, if you search for it.
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Cindy,
I spoke to one of our Neonatologist at the hospital where I work. He indicated there may be a body of evidence growing for delayed cord clamping; however, NRP is approved not only by the Academy of Pediatrics, but also the American Heart Association, and HILCOR which is an international group. I forget what the initials stand for. In any event, this is how we are expected to practice. Your approach is circulatory to stimulate ventilation and NRP’s approach is ventilation to increase circulation within 30seconds to one minute. The Neonatologist went into PCO2 levels and possible reverse blood flow back to mom, etc. Things I didn’t fully understand because I haven’t studied fetal anatomy in a while. I know I can probably get term babies onto mom’s chest and ask for delayed cord clamping, but I doubt seriously if any of the OB or Neonatologist will go for delayed cord clamping on a pretermer. I am looking at the material you’ve recommended, but I can’t change how I practice until my governing body approves it. In other words, I wouldn’t be abiding by the Standards of Care that are currently in place. again, I’m looking forward to trying this with a term baby. I would love to see this happening naturally. That’s where I’m at….stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Thea
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Chrsitine M. Reply:
April 4th, 2011 at 7:26 am (Quote)
I’m somewhat playing devil’s advocate here, but it’s a legitimate question. Do you take the oath that includes “first do no harm?” If so, and if you truly agree with the research that indicates that delayed cord clamping/cutting is beneficial to all BUT the TINIEST of premies, then why are you not able to abide by it (against the institution’s choice) in most cases when it IS in the baby’s best interest and when it DOES do harm to future development…yes, they will “survive” but they will not develop as well as the same baby with a delayed clamping/cutting. Not trying to argue your position, just trying to understand if the “first do no harm” oath counts in this circumstance?
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Cara Reply:
February 10th, 2012 at 1:16 am (Quote)
There is a Facebook page called “Leaving a Baby’s Umbilical Cord to Stop Pulsating (Delayed Cord Clamping). It is a great resource for studies about delayed cord clamping. Studies have shown that early cord clamping harms babies for decades, but it’s still accepted practice.
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Details Reply:
February 10th, 2012 at 6:47 am (Quote)
“The Neonatologist went into … possible reverse blood flow back to mom, etc. Things I didn’t fully understand.”
Thea, you aren’t the only one who doesn’t fully understand. Your neonatologist is talking out his ass – reverse blood flow maybe, but back to mom – not going to happen – that is not how it works! Two separate systems. Look it up!
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and exactly why is that???
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