question about delayed cord clamping...

SIL gave birth about a month ago, her DS was born VERY quickly (3 hrs from SROM to placenta out) the mws in the birth centre didnt cut his cord until it stopped pulsing.

He had a few breathing issues due to quick exit, colouring wasnt the best and was taken to scn, then he went a shade of reddish magenta, he stayed that way for quite a while...

anyway, the other day we were chatting about it, and DF asked sil if her ds had any jaundice, she said no he wasnt yellow, just red, because they didnt cut his cord and left it on too long.

I called BS and said nah, dont think so, I was under the impression that would be a good thing, but sil reckons this is what the nurses in scn told her..??

(mind you, some of the stuff these nurses have supposedly told her in regards to BFing is doing my head in, for a breast friendly accredited hospital it is disgraceful!!)

It supplies more oxygen & iron to baby is what I've been educated-30%extra I think.
We're choosing to delay cord clamping too :)

Last time my Dr told me delayed cord clamping would give DD jaundice, too much iron, the extra blood would be too much for her. I told him I'd done my research - I wanted them to wait, I wanted the cord to stop pulsing before being cut and I did not want the shot to make the placenta come out. I wrote it in the birth plan section of my orange book, which I saw the midwife read. As soon as DD was born they cut her cord and gave me a shot. I was ****ed. She didn't cry right away - I felt like yelling that if they hadn't cut her cord she'd have a source of oxygen and they wouldn't have had a reason to take her and blow on her face with an oxygen mask.

Anyway, I guess my point is that despite what you may know, and would expect from a midwife or Dr, not everything they do or tell you is perfect.

both my DDs had delayed cord clamping. DD2 was born "blue/grey" due to the cord being wrapped around her neck twice and also went the same red/magenta colour afterward. i was told the same thing, that it was due to the cord being delayed....her colour didn't change until she was about 5 weeks

DD2 was a very fast birth, and her cord was not cut straight away. Because of a health issue in utero, she was taken straight to NICU. She was purple at birth, and then once she was on oxygen support, she was very red. She had a very high haemoglobin and they really struggled to get blood samples from her as the blood would clot as soon as it was squeezed out. She actually ended up having to have an arterial line placed in her umbilical stump so that they could take blood easily. I'm pretty sure her haemoglobin stayed high for at least a week. The doctors said that it was due to the delayed cord clamping, and the rush of blood into her body and my dad, who has a haematology background, said that they were probably right. They didn't say that delayed cord clamping was bad, just that it was causing issues for them to monitor her effectively.

I think there is so much we don't understand about hemoglobin levels in new babies and what is 'good' or not. I struggle to see how nature can get it so wrong and a cord would need instant attention. No other animals sever the cord before the placenta is delivered.

Both mine were jaundice (mildly) which is linked to delayed cord clamping. As far as we know breastfeeding also increases jaundice, which tells me, some jaundice is normal and to be expected (and perhaps actually a good thing!)

What gestation was your SIL?

Did the dr say there was anything 'wrong' with the high hemoglobin? My understanding was that babies need high levels of hemaglobin because fetal hemaglobin acts differently than adult and helps the transition from womb to world.

Thank you all for your replies :)

Arcadia- I tend to agree with your first comment there.
My DS had quite bad jaundice, he was an ECS at 40wks and fully BF, was VERY yellow, borderline going under lights, (was told he really should have, later)
his colouring took about 2-3 weeks to go away.

Nephew was born 3 weeks early (maybe) dates were a bit skewed the entire pregnancy...as far as I know, nothing was said by Doctors about his colouring, I was only told (in negative terms) what the nurses in SCN had told little brother and SIL about it...(As in they thought it was a bad thing that the mw's had done it)

hmm...

my middies and ob didn't say it was a bad thing, just that yep her colouring was due to the delayed clamping :) i think it depends on the child because DD1 was also delayed and she didn't turn red/magenta but did have quite bad jaundice!

I haven't read the replies.. but, is the red magenta colour like brusing colour? On his head? This is called contusion and is extremely commen in bubs born as a result of extremely fast Labours. Caused by pressure changes from being ina weightless bubble of fluid to being squished through the birth canal and popped into gravity and air. in Labours that aren't crazy fast bubs body has more time to get use to the pressure changes

On a side note, jaundice is caused by the byproduct of bub breaking down red blood cells. All babies have extra cells to break down, some just take longer/have more trouble excreting the bilirubin (byproduct). Thus bubs get vary degrees of jaundice. Delayed cord clamping can increase jaundice only cause there is more to break down, but! Those extra cells still provided extra goodness to hub before hand

Answers to lots of your questions in here: https://www.bellybelly.com.au/birth/...-cord-clamping

:)