12 Sep When to cut your baby’s umbilical cord?
In our day to day lives most of us delay doing things – most of which are insignificant tasks, such as cleaning, replacing a light bulb and so on. But one very significant action in our lives that should be delayed at all cost is cutting your baby’s umbilical cord at immediately after birth.
‘Cutting the cord’ is something that most of us know and heard of before. Most babies have their cord cut and clamped after birth which detaches your baby from the placenta.
But did you know that the placenta keeps on working for up to 3 – 6 minutes after your baby’s birth, therefore if the umbilical cord if cut immediately at birth (too early) the remaining circulating blood in the umbilical cord is immediately cut off. All the blood that’s left circulating in the cord which essentially belongs and serves very important role within your baby’s circulatory system is wasted.
Indeed, delaying cutting the cord by 1 minute allows an extra 100ml of blood flow to your baby which means they get enough iron to last them through their first year of life, they get increased white blood cells to fight infections in addition to antibodies and stem cells!
It is therefore essential that cutting the umbilical cord should be optimised for all babies, at every gestation and birth – as the saying goes, ‘you only get one chance at this’