Oct 25

“…All The Blood Will Drain Out Of The Baby And She Will Die!”

“Oh, no! You don’t want to do that – all the blood will drain out of the baby and she will die!” – OB to parents who requested delayed cord clamping after birth.

96 people dislike these words.

There are 45 comments to this post.

ourlittlefamily had this to say, Oct 25, 2011 @ 6:17 pm (Quote)

oh really, based on what exactly!? thats got to be the lamest excuse for laziness I’ve ever seen!! Sorry you had to hear this!!

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The Deranged Housewife had this to say, Oct 25, 2011 @ 6:30 pm (Quote)

Yay! Just in time for Halloween! What a moron.

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Dawn had this to say, Oct 25, 2011 @ 6:35 pm (Quote)

My OB tried to tell me something similar. He tried to tell me that that’s how babies get jaundice. He said that when the baby’s born, the baby gets lifted up and put on Momma’s tummy, leaving the placenta inside until it gets delivered. Once it gets delivered, it’s below the baby therefore all the blood drains out of the baby into the placenta.

I didn’t believe him, but he wouldn’t respect my wishes. I donated the cord blood instead. At least someone got to use it.

With #2, I’m going through a Midwife and she said she’ll wait until the cord stops pulsing. Whew!

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Bonita had this to say, Oct 25, 2011 @ 6:49 pm (Quote)

Hmmm… I’m watching my zombie baby do tummy time then… She seems just fine even though the cord didn’t get cut until about 15 minutes after she was born because she came flying out before the midwives made it to the house. lol
It’s amazing how some of our friends looked at me like I had a third eye when they asked if my husband tied off the cord immediately since the midwife wasn’t there yet and I told them “no”. lol

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Maddy Reply:
October 25th, 2011 at 6:57 pm Maddy(Quote)

You’d think that there would be more information out there – actual, factual information – for precipitous delivery/unplanned UC. You’d think they’d tell parents that, in an emergency where they’re not sure of the exact health status of their child (unable to ascertain from the general coloring/breathing/alertness whether the child is 100% okay), leaving the cord clamping is MORE than just ‘alright’ – it could very well save their little one’s life. *rolls eyes*

Lucky! I’m hoping for an HBAC, whenever my body decides to cooperate this time around.

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Bonita Reply:
October 25th, 2011 at 7:53 pm Bonita(Quote)

Good luck with your HBAC! Homebirth is amazing! I can’t imagine going back to the hospital (one bad hospital birth and 2 homebirths under my belt at this point)

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xanthina Reply:
October 26th, 2011 at 2:21 pm xanthina(Quote)

And that tying the cord with a dirty tie can introduce infection.

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Wendy had this to say, Oct 25, 2011 @ 7:17 pm (Quote)

Oh, Dr. Amy! Yes, you, the Selectively Skeptical Ex-OB. If you’re lurking, know this: Yes, Virginia, there *is* such a thing as a doctor playing the Dead Baby Card.

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Jewels had this to say, Oct 25, 2011 @ 8:16 pm (Quote)

This is not my submission, but I had a (hospital) MIDWIFE tell me this exact same thing as a reason for why we were not allowed to remove the giant plastic clamp (which was obviously bothering my 2 day old son) until the whole stump comes off on it’s own!

I was actually too surprised at the incredible logic fail to think of anything to say in response!

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GAMZu Reply:
October 26th, 2011 at 7:14 am GAMZu(Quote)

Well, that’s different than cutting the cord at birth. Before it’s cut, blood flows into the baby, NOT OUT. But after it’s been clamped and cut, I’d be nervous to remove the clamp. What if the area didn’t close up yet?

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rachel Reply:
October 26th, 2011 at 11:59 am rachel(Quote)

what an idiot. I had hospital births and they removed the big, plastic clamp as soon as a couple hours later. Just long enough to make sure the belly button wasnt’ going to bleed. It took 7-10 days for the stub to fall off–why on earth leave it on for that long?

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Heather Reply:
October 28th, 2011 at 1:50 pm Heather(Quote)

What? How dumb! It’s supposed to be removed in 24 hours or less–or so we were told. My first had hers on for about a day, then they cut it off. My second, it was only a matter of hours.

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Dr Elrod had this to say, Oct 25, 2011 @ 8:27 pm (Quote)

Check out Dr. Fogelson (academic ob) on YouTube for a great grand rounds on the benefit of delayed cord clamping. The evidence for benefit is decades old! Not sure why it got left behind. Not sure it’s not a coincidence, but my APGAR of 10 at 5 minute rate has skyrocketed since I started delayed cord clamping. Get on board! It’s even an editorial article in OBGManagement a few months ago stating we should be doing it.

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Kate, Ren's Mama Reply:
October 25th, 2011 at 10:29 pm Kate, Ren's Mama(Quote)

Thanks so much for being open minded enough to practice evidence-based medicine, and for the spreading the word! If only every doctor were like you…

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Cord-Clamping.Com Reply:
October 26th, 2011 at 12:18 am Cord-Clamping.Com(Quote)

Thank you Dr Elrod for sharing the improvement in your practice and neonatal outcomes since adopting delayed cord clamping.

If you would like to share your learning and experience in an opinion piece, I’d love to feature it!

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Jewels Reply:
October 26th, 2011 at 5:50 am Jewels(Quote)

Welcome Dr Elrod! Always lovely to hear of doctors practising evidence-based care! I hope you’ll stick around

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The Deranged Housewife Reply:
October 26th, 2011 at 9:26 am The Deranged Housewife(Quote)

Dr. Elrod, you rock!

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BeckyJ Reply:
October 26th, 2011 at 1:55 pm BeckyJ(Quote)

I watched those a few weeks ago and gave MY OB the links so he could watch them himself after he told me basically the same thing the OP was told.

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Robyn Reply:
October 26th, 2011 at 2:30 pm Robyn(Quote)

Welcome! It’s a shame that Dr. F seems to have stopped posting here. Many of us really like to see things from the other side and having doctors such as you and Dr. Fogelson commenting can really open the doors of communication. Unfortunately, I think he got tired of everyone jumping on him every time he made a comment here.

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first time mommy had this to say, Oct 25, 2011 @ 8:30 pm (Quote)

*smashes crystal ball*
HA! Not so mighty and powerful now are you?!

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V had this to say, Oct 25, 2011 @ 8:58 pm (Quote)

Oh man, another reason I have a couple of zombie babies too. One was delayed at least an hour and one was was a lotus birth. They look pretty alive to me…. :shrug:

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Tee had this to say, Oct 25, 2011 @ 9:09 pm (Quote)

Once again, the level of stupidity hurts!

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jaed had this to say, Oct 25, 2011 @ 9:40 pm (Quote)

Oh, [censored], not this again!

I can’t actually think of a reason for OBs and L&D nurses to push this foolishness – other than maybe getting out of there a few minutes early – so I have to conclude some of them believe it.

Which leads me to the conclusion that it’s possible to get through medical school and nursing school without knowing anything about circulation.

Sigh.

(Welcome to Dr. Elrod. It’s good to see an OB doing the research and going for the evidence-based approach! Your patients are lucky.)

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Macha had this to say, Oct 25, 2011 @ 9:40 pm (Quote)

What’s funny to me is, I’ve heard about accidental home births where there just wasn’t time to get to the hospital and they called paramedics, etc., where they were instructed NOT to cut the cord until they got to the hospital. I assume that was because they didn’t want to risk an amateur clamping job or something, but still … this OB is particularly obtuse to think or say such a thing.

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Cord-Clamping.Com had this to say, Oct 26, 2011 @ 12:15 am (Quote)

Dear practitioner

Please google: placental transfusion, fetal to neonatal transition, & physiological cord closure.

Now read about and properly recognise iatrogenic hypovolemic shock in the newborn.

Now try to find any evidence that supports the surgical intervention of immediate cord clamping.

PS. While you’re at it, read up on the untoward neonatal sequelae deriving from cutting of the umbilical cord before delivery (nuchal cord).

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Lil had this to say, Oct 26, 2011 @ 3:56 am (Quote)

I found my (sneaky photocopies of my) official birth records for my last baby (a planned HBA2C), and it says ‘cord cut to facilitate resuscitation’…which has to be the most backwards sentence to be written on a medical record! We had requested a delayed cord clamp, and had also specified my husband was to cut (to try to prevent them cutting early). In the panic of a ‘blue baby’, it. Never occurred to us to try and stop the midwives when they went into auto mode. It wasn’t until I mentioned in on here and got a dressing down from someone, that I realised the logical thing is to keep babe attached to their natural oxygen supply! Interestingly, when I asked about what would an ambulance crew do, I was told that if the midwives hadn’t got here on time, my husband would have been instructed on cord clamping via the phone, and if the ambulance got here in time, they would clamp but not cut! How far back does this cord clamping obsession go? Did midwives clamp prior to OBs getting in on the act? Or is it yet another male idea that has been forced on women?

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Cord-Clamping.Com Reply:
October 26th, 2011 at 5:45 am Cord-Clamping.Com(Quote)

This is what happens when birth with intervention becomes the control for designing new interventions.
Placental transfusion prepares the lungs for respiration while continuing fetal circulation.
But we decided somehow that abruptly terminating the fetal circulation and causing hypoxia is what ‘helps’ the baby to breathe.
We’re dumb, essentially.

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BeckyJ Reply:
October 27th, 2011 at 6:42 am BeckyJ(Quote)

Animals do it the right way. I’ve seen puppies stay in the caul for a good 2 minutes and come out fine, with placenta and cord still working when it’s finally broken. Then half the time the mom doesn’t worry about the cord until after the rest of her puppy is clean. Nature intended the cord to be intact for a time before being severed by mother. If it’s animal instinct, it must be right. Right?

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Lisa Reply:
October 27th, 2011 at 7:35 am Lisa(Quote)

Yes, this!

Maybe they’re all zombie puppies running around since there was no OB vet to clamp the cords right away.

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Ash had this to say, Oct 26, 2011 @ 4:20 am (Quote)

My OB told me the same thing. I wasn’t able to find a new one before my son was delivered. Needless to say, I will not be using that OB again.

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GAMZu had this to say, Oct 26, 2011 @ 7:27 am (Quote)

Yikes…
I am lucky to have taken a childbirth class with my first pregnancy. I was TOTALLY clueless. About everything. This was 8 years ago, but even then, we were taught about the ridiculousness of early clamping. The teacher mocked the practice of paramedics telling the husband over the phone to pull out his shoelace and tie up the cord (in cases that the mother goes into labor at home or in the car on the way to the hospital.)
Yes, the best thing to do in an unprecedented delivery is cut off blood supply to the baby with a germy, filthy shoelace. Way to go.

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Holly Reply:
October 26th, 2011 at 8:19 am Holly(Quote)

I read this post to my paramedic husband, and apparently he was taught that this is true! He said something about once all the blood is drained from something it will start to suck blood back in? Uhhh, yeah, no. Placentas don’t suddenly turn into blood sucking monsters once a baby was born. We had a talk about the function of placentas after that, lol.

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ashley bean Reply:
October 26th, 2011 at 5:21 pm ashley bean(Quote)

Woah, placentas have vaccuum options now?? Cool, I’ll have to get one of those now cause of course ALL the cool moms are gonna have them

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Lisa Reply:
October 27th, 2011 at 7:36 am Lisa(Quote)

Maybe it gets its vacuum power from the poop-sucking vagina.

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Ashley Reply:
October 27th, 2011 at 10:08 am Ashley(Quote)

ROFLMAO!!!!

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Jessica had this to say, Oct 26, 2011 @ 8:57 am (Quote)

That darn circulatory system is so overrated.

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Michelle had this to say, Oct 26, 2011 @ 9:05 am (Quote)

Wow, OBs are being insanely irresponsible with women with complete placenta previa then! Those women need to spend their entire pregnancy hanging upside down! Otherwise the placenta is going to be below the baby and no blood will get to baby! The horror!

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Amanda had this to say, Oct 26, 2011 @ 9:58 am (Quote)

I can’t believe how many doctors and nurses still believe this.

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liz had this to say, Oct 26, 2011 @ 11:49 am (Quote)

2 zombie babies here!

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BeckyJ had this to say, Oct 26, 2011 @ 1:21 pm (Quote)

This one isn’t mine, but I was pretty much told this by my OB when I told him that I wanted to delay cord clamping. He said that he’d “milk” the cord and then clamp it. This is proven to be twice as detrimental to baby than regular delayed clamping every proved to be.

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amelia had this to say, Oct 26, 2011 @ 6:51 pm (Quote)

Well that explains a lot then! My 2 year acts like a little monster because she is really a zombie ROFL

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sigrid had this to say, Oct 27, 2011 @ 10:40 am (Quote)

This really makes no sense at all. The reasons that I’ve heard for early cord clamping (from a neonatologist and an OB) is that delayed cord clamping causes polycythemia (thick blood– too many RBCs) which can lead to hyperbilirubinemia (jaundice) and hypoglycemia. I’ve actually taken care of a baby in NICU that was so polycythemic from delayed cord clamping that they actually had to REMOVE blood from her. Crazy stuff, huh?

I have NEVER heard that a baby could LOSE blood from delayed cord clamping!

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BeckyJ Reply:
October 29th, 2011 at 11:56 am BeckyJ(Quote)

The sad thing is, OB’s are taught that milking the cord is better than delayed clamping when in fact, it inreases overall average of babies with polycythemia by 25%. It’s assinine to continue to do something that proven harmful. Also, baby would not have any blood drain from it unless is was elevated WAY above mom(like when they used to spank the baby to make it cry right after being born). Laying baby on the abdomen is completely fine.

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Heather had this to say, Oct 28, 2011 @ 1:52 pm (Quote)

Did my sister teach your medical class? When I was a little kid (like 4 or 5), she told me that if I pricked my belly button, all the air in my body would come out like deflating a balloon, so I was terrified of belly button injuries for years. That’s about as credible as your theory, Dr. Clamps. Okay, maybe a LITTLE less

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