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Was wondering if anyone could share their experience with delayed cord clamping? Am thinking of it this time for bub #3. How long did you wait? How long does it take to stop pulsating? How was it recieved by the doctors, midwives etc?
I am surprised that I am only finding out info on this on BB and it has never been mentioned by medical staff as an option in my previous two pregnancies.
Any info would be great, thanks.
We did it with DD2, waited until the cord had stopped pulsating. To be honest, I'm not sure how long it took, I didn't have a clock in the room and I was a bit distracted by what had just happened! LOL
I think it wasn't a long time though - maybe 5-10 minutes? I went to an independent birth centre so my midwives usually follow that practice anyway.
I did this with Moo but can't tell you how long it took! I'm sure it wasn't long.
My midwives did this as standard practice too.
Hi MaggiePie,
We delayed the cord clamping with my son. My obstetrician never brought up the subject, but I had researched it and put in my birth plan that I didn't want the cord cut until after it stopped pulsing. My Ob read the plan and was fine with that (obviously assuming all was well with me and bub).
When I arrived at the hospital in labour the midwives read the birth plan and the only thing they questioned was that I also put in there that I didn't want the synthetic oxytocin injection until AFTER the delayed cord cutting because I didn't want any of it to get to my DS. They said that was not normal procedure so called my Ob to check he was ok with that, which he was.
It can vary greatly how long it can take the cord to stop pulsing. When DS was born it only took about 5 minutes for his cord to stop pulsing though, so then it was clamped and DH cut it.
I feel really happy about our decision to do it all that way, and we'll be doing the same with this pregnancy assuming all goes to plan :)
Enjoy the rest of your pregnancy and good luck for the birth!
we did but didnt have a choice, unexpected home birth ambos took 20 min to get there DD2 was born just after firt contact so was 15 min before cord was clamped and cut
We also delayed cord clamping for DD. It didn't take very long to stop (5-10 mins?). I was too busy gazing at DD to notice anyway...lol.
I also delivered the placenta in my own time (ie without the syntocin injection). I hadn't had any drugs/hormones during labour so didn't see why my body couldn't do this part naturally too. That only took about 20 minutes or so at most. Would definitely do it that way again if I can.
I also did it with DS3. However it was very quick! It was from birth, till i turned back around (maybe 2 minutes? as i was on all 4's) and as i turned around and sat down, the placenta came out too. (i actually had the injection dispite my original choice not to, i changed my mind, but as they injected, the placenta appeared, so it wasn't even needed!)
Drs i found very funny... The only ones i saw about it were the peads after he was born, who commented on his mild jaundice, and then said, "oh, you did delayed cord clamping... why on earth would you do that?" Which i then told them the reasons why etc and told them that DS1 was more jaundiced and his was not clamped, and DS3's was clamped within their normal amount of time really as his cord stopped pulsating very quickly!
Most of them just rolled their eyes and went on with their baby check.
None of the doctors brought it up prenatally... i was in the know you midwife program, and my midwife was very happy i was doing it :D
FWIW i had much less bleeding with my 3rd than i did with any of my others too. If i were to have any more, which i am not, i would have done that again. :D
DD's took about 5mins to stop pulsing, it was in my birthplan but the MW supported it anyways. DD had a pretty short cord so she was laying a bit lower on my chest, and once it stopped pulsing and the MW was going to clamp it, the ends of the clamp looked like scissor handles, and I kept saying 'no no DH is going to cut the cord' and she kept looking at me then going to clamp it, where I thought she was going to cut it! DH finally goes 'chill out it's just the clamp' ha ha I couldn't see what was going on - felt like a doofus! Placenta took about another 40 mins to come out (naturally).
S' cord only took a few minutes to stop pulsing, and then it was cut. T had a very short cord and to save me from too much discomfort (I had a tear and was sitting on a birthing stool, she was kind of sitting up on my knee, and frankly, it was agony) we clamped and cut it before it stopped. Both times it was in my birth plan; midwives were fine with it. Placenta was delivered without injection, both times while babies fed.
They could have done it without you knowing. Sometimes all things 'new' arent 'new' at all!
All three of mine have had the delay but have all looked horribly jaundice! Never needed lights tho so may have been why????
No real help am i :rofl: Sorry! and congrats on baby number three. I always say that baby number three lets you forgive yourself of all the 'mistakes' you made with the first two. Means you really really just get to sit back and enjoy! Baby number three really wasnt any extra work either, just weird to get use to the idea that it NEVER gets to sleep when it needs too! But you end up with the most cruzy baby because of it!
We did. :)
It took 5-10 mins for the cord to stop pulsating.
Most of the MW's didn't even question it. One did tell me it was extremely dangerous, while also totally dismissing the rest of my birth plan more or less as rubbish. So I requested not to see her again and never had another issue :)
Isaac was quite jaundiced and extra sleepy for a few days.
Thankyou for all of your replies, glad to hear that there are people out there who support this.
Tegam, thanks for your kind words, I was feeling a bit nervous about #3 thinking 'how am I going to go this?' so your wisdom was very timely. I am certain they cut the cord immediately with both other bubs #1 was quite distressed when she came out and #2 they did it even before I could turn around (was on all fours).
I will talk about it with my doctor at the next visit and put it in my birth plan and discuss it with the midwives at the clinic, and hopefully all will go to plan!!
Thanks again for your insight
Unfortunately, if you opt for delayed cord clamping you cannot donate cord blood to a donor bank. I asked my OB about this because I wanted to donate and his opinion was that why would 2-5 minutes matter when you have had blood flowing through the cord for 9+ months. So we are sticking with our plan to donate in the hope that it may help a sick child in the future.
Yes we did it, did a lot of looking into it before hand and this was right for us..
Im all fuzzy on the birth still, but i remember just before DD was born we told the MW about it and then again when DD was born the DR came in and the MF said to the DR they want to delay cord clamping and it was all fine with them, the MW held the cord and watched it and aited while it pulsed i guess :) and once it was done DF cut the cord ..I could not tell you how long it took though
I feel very happy with what we did and would do it again
You raise a very good point buliej. Unfortunately there's no bank for cord blood in SA so we decided that making sure DD got it all at birth was the next best thing for us to do.:
I was unable to do delayed clamping with DD1 as we had a c/sect but did it with DD2 and as the others mentioned, it was surprisingly quick. It just makes me smile to think of all of those goodies that were delivered into my little girl, one last gift before I sent her out on her own into the world ;)
Honestly, after the research I did about it I wonder why there is such a rush to clamp, there are so many benefits to both mother and baby (discounting of course a situation where a baby needs resus which cannot be done on mum's thigh ;))
I hope that you find your birth team respect your wishes if you decide to go with delayed cord clamp
You can have delayed cord clamping with a c/s, we did it with DD. I don't think it completely finished pulsating, but it was delayed for a time, as long as was possible under the circumstances.
:thumbsup: oh, didn't know this!! Good to hear though.:
My DH and I thought long and hard about whether to do delayed cord clamping or to store the cord blood. In the end we decided to do the delayed cord clamping because we tend to think the mother nature generally gets things right, and if she designed the placenta to keep pumping the blood and stem cells into the baby after it was born, then there is probably a good reason for it. I also couldn't help but wonder if some of the medical problems that stored stem cells can help are less likely to occur in someone that had all those extra stem cells in their body to begin with. I'm not trying to persuade anyone either way, but just wanted to express why we made the decision we did.:
This is why : placenta and cord info:
his opinion was that why would 2-5 minutes matter when you have had blood flowing through the cord for 9+ months
Excerpts:
:
“The suggested neonatal benefits associated with this increased placental transfusion include higher haemoglobin levels (Prendiville 1989), additional iron stores and less anaemia later in infancy (Chaparro 2006; WHO 1998b), higher red blood cell flow to vital organs, better cardiopulmonary adaptation, and increased duration of early breastfeeding (Mercer 2001; Mercer 2006). There is growing evidence that delaying cord clamping confers improved iron status in infants up to six months post birth (Chaparro 2006; Mercer 2006; van Rheenen 2004).”
Strange that your OB is unaware of these studies....:
The baby/placenta has a separate blood system from the mother. The placenta does the job of the lungs by exchanging gas (oxygen and carbon dioxide) via the intervillous space between the baby’s and the mother’s blood system. Before birth, a third of the baby/placenta blood volume is in the placenta at any given time to facilitate this gas exchange.
After birth this ‘placental’ blood volume is transferred through the pulsing cord into the baby increasing the baby’s circulating blood volume. This has two major effects:
1. Provides the extra blood volume needed for the heart to direct 50% of it’s output to the lungs (8% before birth). This extra blood fills the capillaries in the lungs making them expand to provide support for the alveoli to open. It also aids lung fluid clearance from the alveoli. These changes allow the baby to breath effectively.
2. Increases the number of circulating red blood cells which carry oxygen. This increases the baby’s capacity to send oxygen around the body.
This transfer of blood volume from placenta to lungs takes place over a number of minutes following birth. Textbooks will tell you 3-7 minutes, but I have felt cords pulse for a lot longer than that. While these changes take place, oxygen continues to be provided by the placenta until the baby is ready to begin breathing.
Maggie Pie i could have written the exact same post. I too am expecting my 3rd and was never aware of delayed clamping until recently. Why are we not informed about this from Dr's, Ob's?? So glad i found this and that we both get the information we are searching for from the lovely BB members.
In my Belly Belly group with DS2 one mentioned this but i never looked into it at the time.
It wasn't until i was looking into the stem cell storage (during this current pregnancy) that i became aware of delayed clamping.
So for my 3rd (and final) pregnancy i actually am thinking of going in with some kind of birth plan and will be requesting delayed clamping aswell. Lets hope we both get what we are wishing for :D
We have delayed cord clamping with all three births. We have waited until the cord stopped pulsating - around 15 minutes to 20 minutes if I recall correctly, although we were probably a bit longer because we didn't cut the cord until the placenta was born and DW was almost out of the water.
And yes, there are lots of well understood benefits to delayed cord clamping, although many OBs are still wary of the practice because of a mistaken belief that it increases the risk of the baby developing jaundice.
this is interesting thankyou MaggiePie for starting this thread, i've been wondering these questions also as im thinking of doing it this time around too
*note to self* : must ask my midwife's if they would do this!
This is a question for me too- I'd like to see long term studies on the health of people with or without cord clamping.:
We intended to delay cord clamping. It was no biggie and no one batted an eyelid about my plan to have a natural 3rd stage. But after about 10 mins I moved and a lot of blood was coming out so we decided to clamp the cord and have a managed 3rd stage. The cord had stopped pulsing anyway so even with a managed 3rd stage for bleeding we were able to wait.
RoryRory - interesting - he's very highly regarded, so my guess is that he probably knows about the studies but doesn't agree with them...but this doesn't mean he's right...anyway, I believe in banking the cord blood for others who may need it to fight serious illness. Science and medicine have given us this pregnancy, I want to give something back (just how we feel).
I agree !!:
Thanks so much for an interesting discussion. I looked into the cord blood bank when preg with #1 but you can't do it in the town I am in anyway. So we will do the delayed clamping this time. Funny about the jaundice. My DS was very jaundiced for months after delivery and he had his cord cut straight away. I was worried as it took so long to clear up and was very pronouced when he was born. But the doctors were never concerned and just kept saying 'it will improve' he was never treated. So if they are so 'unworried' about jaundice, why would they be worried that cord clamping could cause it????
Sometimes I think with the Dr's they can't be bothered waiting the extra few minutes it might take for the cord to stop, its easier just to cut straight away. I think this is generally the case with our hospital system (and I work in it) - get them in, fix them up, get them out....
Yep we did it with number 3. I birthed dd at a public hospital that doesn't do delayed cord clamping as a rule, but I put this into my birth plan and I was lucky to have a wonderful midwife who observed my wishes. I also wanted to birth the placenta without the injection (can't remember name) and she honored that too, even though I had had a retained placenta previously.
I have to say that all up I was so happy with my choices.