Some people say that the actual birth of the baby occurs only after severing the umbilical cord. The cord bonds the baby with its mother for nine months in the womb. As doctors would have it, they’d rather cut the cord soon after the baby arrives into the world and much before the skin-to-skin contact happens. The pulsating cord that had been feeding, nourishing and oxygenating the baby will be gone in a matter of seconds. These sixty seconds of clamping and cutting the cord could be so crucial to your baby’s health, but somehow the routine has most people overlook how these seconds could be crucial.
Apparently, the practice of clamping and cutting the cord right after birth originates from the convenience of doctors to transport or pay medical attention to the baby should there be a need. It is also practiced to ensure that any medication that is administered to the mother is not passed on to the baby. Some doctors, on the other hand, are also of the opinion that cord clamping can prevent hemorrhaging in the mother. The practice has been there for long now, but more and more research off late has been suggesting that clamping the cord, at least, one minute after birth – also known as delayed cord clamping has unbelievable multifarious benefits for the baby.
The first thing to bear in mind is that as the baby had been deriving oxygen from the cord for up until birth, breathing the actual air through its tiny lungs in the initial phase post birth could be quite a struggle in few babies. The umbilical cord puts pressure to facilitate the actual breathing by improving the influx of blood gushing through the cells lining the lungs open up with a burst for the first time to draw oxygen from the air. This transition, however, can be hard for some babies and, therefore, delayed clamping of the cord is recommended so as to give babies more blood, more oxygen, and the time to adjust to the new milieu.
It has been found that delayed cord clamping by at least a minute increases the hemoglobin and iron reserves in the baby without causing any harm to the mother. These are some other benefits of delayed cord clamping:
- Newborns have higher birth weight due to delayed cord clamping
- Babies have higher hemoglobin levels
- There is a long-term increase in the iron levels, and there could be lesser iron deficiencies in babies by the time it is three or six months old
- There is reduced risk of postpartum hemorrhaging in mothers
- Anemia-related cognitive delays later in life is lessened.
One needs to note that by immediate clamping, babies are deprived of 30 to 40 percent of their blood at the time of birth. Skin-to-skin contact can still happen when the cord hasn’t been clamped.
The World Health Organization recommends that clamping the cord be delayed by one to three minutes. However, the governing OB agency in the United States does not agree with the recommendation as they quote inadequate evidence that this policy is changed and urges doctors to think about the risks for infants who need resuscitation or cord banking as proposed by parents. On the contrary, they have also conceded that there is evidence that delayed clamping with premature infants gives them the much needed extra blood cells and reduces the risk of hemorrhaging for babies as well.
In the United Kingdom, a midwife has managed to push the policies around cord clamping. Due to her efforts, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has aligned its guidelines with the World Health Organization (WHO). The International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) has given the green signal to doctors for clamping the cord anytime between one and five minutes after birth.
The US is still lagging behind in the mandate, but at the end of the day, it’s the mother who knows what’s the best for her and her baby. You might have to sieve through the best possible advice, do your research, and then decide the best way out for both you and your baby.
