Jaundice and cord clamping

[mistyeiz]

This question stemmed from a discussion we were having here.

My plan is to wait till the cord stop pulsing before cutting it as I've read in many articles that the extra blood that bub gets would be good to get the organs going once out of the womb. BUT....

Doesn't extra blood in the baby cause jaundice? Or what they call an excess of bilibirium [dont mind the wrong spelling coz i know i got it wrong].....can someone help clear this out? I'm like so blur right now....

[becmc]

According to my info from my midwife (a pamphlet written by a Dr Sarah Buckley), yes it is almost certain to cause jaundice but there is no evidence of adverse affects of this and is apparently beneficial because of the anti oxidant properties of bilirubin.

[Jennifer13]

This was what we were told as well by my ob. Also, we wanted to store the cord blood for stem cells, so obviously couldn't leave the cord to pulsate. Interestingly, there isn't as much blood in the cord from a c/s as from a vaginal delivery.

[Trillian]

There is a very informative article on the matter on the BB main site here, but this is an excerpt from it about Cord blood and jaundice:

<H2>Delayed Cord Clamping & Jaundice

You may be told that delayed clamping causes jaundice in babies by your carer or hospital. This is not true.
Babies are no more likely to become jaundiced by delaying cord clamping and there is no relation to jaundice and the time of the cord being clamped. In the studies, the bilirubin levels were within normal range no matter when the cord was clamped. (Excess bilirubin levels are what is associated with jaundice).
Here are some statements from recent studies to back this claim:



“There were no significant differences for other secondary outcome measures: plasma bilirubin levels at 24 to 48 hours, neonatal morbidity (respiratory distress, tachypnea, grunting, jaundice, seizures, sepsis, necrotizing enterocolitis), mortality (none), neonatal intensive care unit admission, length of hospital stay, disease up to 1 month of age, weight or rate of breast-feeding at 1 month, maternal postpartum blood-loss volume, and maternal hematocrit level at 24 hours postpartum.”
AND
“Plasma bilirubin values as well as hyperbilirubinemia rates were similar in the 3 groups, which goes along with other authors’ observations.”
AND
from the recent study at the University of Granada
”...the clamping of the umbilical cord of newborns from full-term pregnancies, two minutes after the infant is expelled from the womb, makes no difference to hematocrit or hemoglobin levels of the umbilical cord vein compared to clamping the cord within 20 seconds. Thus, the study shows that early clamping (which is widely performed) is not justified.”
Further to this, Dr. Sarah Buckley’s well-researched article, A Natural Approach to the Third Stage of Labour’ states:
“Some studies have shown an increased risk of polycythemia (more red blood cells in the blood) and jaundice when the cord is clamped later. Polycythemia may be beneficial, in that more red cells means more oxygen being delivered to the tissues. The risk that polycythemia will cause the blood to become too thick (hyperviscosity syndrome), which is often used as an argument against delayed cord clamping, seems to be negligible in healthy babies. (Morley 1998)
Jaundice is almost certain when a baby gets his or her full quota of blood, and is caused by the breakdown of the normal excess of blood to produce bilirubin, the pigment that causes the yellow appearance of a jaundiced baby. There is, however, no evidence of adverse effects from this. (Morley 1998). One author has proposed that jaundice, which is present in almost all human infants to some extent, and which is often prolonged by breastfeeding, may actually be beneficial because of the anti-oxidant properties of bilirubin. (Gartner 1998)”

</H2>

[mistyeiz]

thanks for that ladies. most appreciated.