After nine long months, hours and hours of labor, the time has finally come when you see your baby. Your husband or doctor holds him up and you just get the rush of “awe” at the amazing moment enveloping you.
Then nothing else matters, you just want to hold him and let the rest of everything else take care of itself.
And you should because you’ve earned it!
But something may be happening that you don’t even realize at that moment—something very important. Your doctor could be clamping your baby’s umbilical cord without you noticing. Maybe it seems like not that big of a deal? But it IS.
Your doctor could be clamping your baby’s umbilical cord without you noticing. Maybe it seems like not that big of a deal? But it IS.
There are delayed cord clamping benefits that your baby NEEDS. If your doctor is eager to get this birth over with to move onto the next one, he may clamp that cord right away upon baby’s entry in order to get moving along. But if he does this, your baby is LOSING benefits and increasing the risk of other harms.
Umbilical Cord Science
If you need a refresher on anatomy—from out of your baby’s belly button grows their umbilical cord, which is connected to the placenta, which is connected to your uterus. All of the blood flowing through the placenta and cord is the baby’s, NOT yours.
When your baby is born, all of the blood still left in the placenta and cord immediately starts to move directly into the baby (placental transfusion). In fact, 1/3 of the baby’s blood is STILL left in the placenta at birth.
Now it doesn’t happen immediately. The umbilical cord still has a pulse flowing through it once your baby is out. It can take up to five minutes for all of the blood to empty from the placenta into your baby. Which is why your placenta doesn’t come out immediately with the baby either, there’s a bit of a delay.
Related: Just Three Stages – Childbirth Simplified
Delayed Cord Clamping Benefits
So in order to save time (supposedly), the doctor can clamp the cord, cut it, hand you the baby and then leave once his job is done. Then the nurses can also take your baby sooner to weigh him, to all their little checks, etc. Saving what, like 5 minutes?
When the cord clamp is delayed, sure it takes an extra few minutes. But there are excellent benefits to leaving it alone until blood flow has ceased, such as:
- Placenta Delivery: When all of the baby’s blood leaves the placenta, its likelihood of delivering itself without any issues increases. It’s done it job and can release itself from your uterine wall and come out as expected.
- Developing Conditions: There are a number of conditions that your baby is spared from developing because they have all of the sufficient blood cells, iron stores, and necessary nutrients enclosed in their blood stream.
A study published in 2015 in the Journal of American Medical Association Pediatrics showed that delayed cord clamping improves your child’s fine-motor skills and social interaction abilities through toddler-hood, especially for boys.
The tiny risk of jaundice (if it truly is a risk) is not even comparable to the other risks heavily associated with choosing to clamp the cord quickly.
There is ONE caveat to this argument. Some sources will say that delayed cord clamping will increase your baby’s risk of developing jaundice, others won’t.
However, the tiny risk of jaundice (if it truly is a risk) is not even comparable to the other risks heavily associated with choosing to clamp the cord quickly.
Related: Newborn Jaudice Levels – Are They Harmful?
Early Cord Clamping Risks
Clamping the cord before blood flow has slowed or ceased completely has a number of documented risks directly influenced by clamping early.
- Neurodevelopment: Because of the lower level of blood stores in the baby, it will have insufficient levels of iron for months after they’re born. Too low of levels of iron can lead to neurodevelopmental delay, which you absolutely what you don’t want.
- Hemorrhage: Not for the baby, but for the mother here—when the placenta has too much blood remaining in it, it’s trying to send it somewhere. But when the path through the cord is blocked, it has to go somewhere. So the increased likelihood of a mother have a placental hemorrhage increases. And when the placenta is still attached to the uterus without the blood vessels having properly started to close off, the loss of blood can be too great.
- Anemia: This is a condition where the body doesn’t generate or have enough red blood cells. Because your baby has just begun creating its own cells, it can be slow going at first. So when their blood supply is cut off, their blood level is often too and they may start having anemic symptoms.
In comparing these risks to that have having a little jaundice, I would take the jaundice.
In comparing these risks to that have having a little jaundice, I would take the jaundice. Because I know that my baby is going to recover from jaundice and the side effects are nothing to me in comparison to the aspects of neurodevelopment.
Related: Natural Birth Side Effects – Good or Bad?
What If You Want To Bank Your Baby’s Cord Blood?
There is no consensus between storing cord blood and delayed cord clamping among the medical community. Why? Because you can’t have both.
To acquire the amount of cord blood needed for sufficient storage of limited stem cells, you have to be willing to clamp your baby’s cord very early. When you wait until the pulse has slowed or ceased, there’s not enough left for a cord blood banking lab to pool the stem cells from.
It’s not like you can hand a vial of cord blood to a technician and expect them to pull all of the blood cells from it, leaving you with millions and millions of stem cells. There’s just NOT that many. Cord blood banks require nearly all of the available cord blood volume in order to store enough worthwhile.
But think of it this way…
If you’re birthing your baby naturally and unmedicated, your odds of having a baby with illnesses and disease drops dramatically.
The conditions that a child would need stem cells in the future are limited to their having leukemia or some other cancer of the blood, very rare indeed.
Yes, it still happens. But your odds of having health issues related to lacking that initial cord blood from the very beginning may be less likely.
Your baby is much better off having their stem cells NOW when they’re growing is so important.
With my first baby, I was flooded with information about cord blood banking and was heavily considering it. But after some research and the cost versus benefit, my husband and I decided that it wouldn’t be worth the effort. And I’m not regretting the decision.
For example: In the study I mentioned above about fine-motor skills and social interactions with young children, 11% of those children that were affected had early cord clamping.
The value of a minuscule 0.014% risk of my baby needing their cord blood is NOT greater than the 11% chance that they would grow up with developmental delays.
Of the 25 million children under age five in the US, approximately 3,500 are expected to gain leukemia each year, according to the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. So if you do the math, that’s 0.014% of children that would likely need their cord blood for treatment of leukemia.
So how are you going to weigh the risks?
The value of a minuscule 0.014% risk of my baby needing their cord blood is NOT greater than the 11% chance that they would grow up with developmental delays. So it becomes your decision on whether you want to save your baby’s cord blood or not.
Related: Are You Seeding Your Baby’s Microbiome? It Will Affect Their Entire Future
Emergency Situations Differ
Now, there can be times when getting your baby out as fast as possible and disconnected from you quickly is more important. You may have had a complication during your labor that requires immediate attention. Maybe your baby’s life is at stake for some reason.
I believe in these cases, clamping and cutting that cord immediately can mean the difference between taking your baby home or not. But don’t freak out when you hear that! Those instances are just as rare as your baby developing leukemia—maybe more, maybe less.
If there EVER was a concern that this may happen, your doctor will inform you or know in advance so that you can work together on what you feel is best for your child.
C³ = Cord Clamping Conclusion
There are a few things you can do to help your delayed cord clamping decision happen:
- Discuss it will your doctor/midwife and husband. Let them know beforehand of your desires to ensure that they will comply and support you.
- Have it in your birth plan. You likely won’t have met your nurses or attending staff until you’re in labor. Help them know so that they can reminder the doctor too.
- Extra Tip: You can also have the doctor or your husband hold the baby level with your uterus until the blood flow has ceased. Then the placenta and baby’s blood pressure aren’t fighting gravity as hard to pump that blood to the right place. Its assists in the placental transfusion I mentioned earlier.
It may not seem like a big deal in the end, and maybe it won’t be for you. But anything that will help your baby’s growth and blossoming childhood is worth the effort.
Learn Everything You Need To Know For Your Natural Birth Here
I hope this has helped you make your decision on whether or not the timing of your baby’s cord being clamped is important to you, and when you would want to do it.
It’s not something most people think about, or completely forget when in the moment of seeing baby for the first time. So make sure you’re aware!
Are you going to delay your baby’s cord clamping?
This post was a very good one. I’m expecting a second baby and have been looking into having a natural birth along with delaying the cord. I wish I knew about the delayed clamping with our first, I would have done it. Enjoy reading your posts.
Thanks Michaela! Let me know how I can help you along the way. 🙂
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Kudos, I appreciate it!
Sure. I use Wealthy Affiliate, here.
Wow. Just wow. I never knew ANY of this. Granted, I have never had kids before either. But I do love learning about the way the human body works.
I have a question. How does delayed cord clamping work if your child is a preemie? Should you still do it? Or is that covered under an emergency situation?
It’s even MORE helpful for preemie babies. But it really depends upon the situation of how they’re birthed. If they’re coming before 37 weeks, it’s likely an emergency or something is wrong and help is needed right away.
But if a c-section is happening for other medical reasons, then it’s likely cord clamping won’t be delayed either. It’s really something that would need to be discussed with your doctor if you’re risk of haven’t premature babies is higher than normal. Great question, Kinya. Thanks for visiting!
You’re post is lookin’ good. I didn’t know that one third of the blood is still in the umbilical cord after birth. What do you tell the doctors if they are in a rush to cut and run, though? Just curious. I may have just given you another post idea. Good post . Good info. Have a good’n.
That’s why is SO important to have the discussion beforehand with your doctor so that they’re aware. Make sure the husband is reinforcing the decisions in the moment too because the wife may not be fully aware of what’s happening. Working with the nursing staff and making sure they’re on board is important too.
As soon as I’m in my labor & delivery room and my nurse has done her routine, I’ll go over with her my desires with every step of the delivery. Sometimes they have white boards in the rooms where the nurses will write requests like that up so everyone can see them. It certainly doesn’t hurt to have multiple copies of your birth plan available in the room and at the nurses station out in the hall either. Thank Jason!
Hi Sarah,
This is a very informative website. If only this information was available when I had my baby. Good on you for making this available for new mums.
Thank you Hope. Feel free to share.
What a great article! I don’t have any kids, but I hope to have one within the next couple of years. This definitely gave me something to think about that I hadn’t even realized before. You’ve set up such a great resource!
Sure! Let me know if you every have questions when you start having your children. There is SO much to think about and I hope to be able to convey everything so you can make the best decisions for you and your family. Best to you, Steph!
Very interesting! All new mothers-to be should have this information!
I agree, Debby. Help me spread the word. Feel free to share any of the posts on your social media. Thanks!
Tis was a very interesting read! I am going to have to have my lady read this article for future reference. I learned a lot about birth defects in college, but I did not realize that there was the possibility of avoiding a few by delaying clamping by even just 5 minutes! Incredible… Low iron in newborns seems to be a big epidemic today…
Chris
Yes, and if you watched the TEDTalk video there’s so much more about low iron deficiency worldwide that I didn’t realize either. Yes, we know about the major terrible defects that can happen to babies. But it’s all these little things that stack up from the everyday decisions and influences we have on ourselves and our children, without even realizing it. Thanks for sharing with your gal, Chris. Have a nice day!