Well at least the doctor didn’t make crap up about how it would drain all the blood out of the mother AND the baby and then cause a mystical vortex to open so the Dungeon Demesne would erupt slithering bugs out into our world and render half the population insane and give the other half ringworm.

OMG Jane that was SO funny I nearly peed my pants.

LOL ringworm.
But seriously now, is he really this oblivious, or just a good liar? I’d be really uncomfortable using a “professional” who knows so little about the different ways they can do thier job.

*headdesk*
*headdesk*
*headdesk*

This is the sort of OB who learnt his ‘trade’ after med school (probably about 30 years ago) and stopped his education there. A plain old acceptance of ‘this is how its done’ and then he never reads or updates. Ever.

In the late 1960s, Alice Yao and collegues conducted studies on placental transfusion and gravity. Often the only studies referenced in modern textbooks, students are only taught a fraction of the third stage/neonatal transition: ie. “the baby is born and then the cord is clamped”, “placental transfusion can over-perfuse” and “gravity can have an impact on blood volume”. NO detail is provided that 20cm above or below the placenta makes little difference in placental transfusion, nor is evidence shared from the studies of Leboyer-style birth where babies placed on their mothers abdomen, with delayed clamping, had higher blood volumes, hematocrit levels, iron stores etc. So much handwringing is performed about a baby being born and held by the mother, however babies born via cesarean section can be lifted 40-50cm above the placenta to ‘wave’ at mummy over the field prior to clamping?!! It is the timing of an ill-informed third party amputating the baby from the still-functioning placenta that can cause issues. A uterine contraction can send a large ‘burst’ of blood to the baby, however the baby’s reflexes/systems can then send some blood back – this happens in a step-wise process, oxgenating the baby, and perfusing all the neonatal organs until such time as the physiologically-normal blood volume is achieved. Any surgical clamping during the process, and performed prior to the umbilical blood vessels ‘clamping’ naturally inside the baby, is the wrong time.
Hypoperfusion and hyperperfusion is pathological and iatrogenic.

Instead of panicking at new information, perhaps the medical PROFESSIONAL could ask for studies or more information regarding the topic.

Would that be SO HARD, you close-minded twit!?

When I asked my OB about delayed clamping he was impressed that I was reading/researching, since I am a young mom. Yes that seems like he was stereo-typing me, but it didn’t feel that way. At least he KNEW what it was, KNEW the benifits and said if that was what I wanted to do we could continue to discuss it at later appointments, closer to my due date. I ended up with a C-Section so it didn’t matter much anyways, but he would have done delayed clamping with no problem.

I seriously think I’d grab my stuff and just walk out…maybe mentioning something on the way out that if the doctor was that uninformed about something like delayed cord clamping, there was no way I thought s/he would be qualified enough to attend my birth.

I’ve determined that when dealing with doctors – any doctor, really, it seems – you should carry a briefcase full of literature, statistics and studies with you as proof that yes, you really *do* know what you’re talking about.

Do doctors not have google?

TDH, I did exactly that at my VBAC consult — Luckily the OB I saw that day said “I can tell you’re very informed so this is just a formality for legal” and I didn’t need to break out my binder

Can anyone link me to some info to refute a dumb@$$ dr who told a friend that since we live at such a high altitude (Colorado) that delayed cord clamping causes Jaundice? I birthed with this dr and asked for delayed cord clamping. He said ok but didn’t wait very long (a minute?)… not as long as I had requested (until it stopped pulsing). Now he is spewing this mess! Any links I can show her SPECIFICALLY about Colorado/high altitude, jaundice and delayed cord clamping. Apparently the dr admitted that at all other altitudes it was acceptable, but not here… Thanks!