# Delayed Cord Clamping



## buttonnose82

I was just reading in the green parent magazine that rachel_c sent me (thankyou!) about delayed cord clamping

It is certainly very interesting and I am going to ask my midwife about it (when i can finally get a blooming appointment!).

Did any of you girls do delayed cord clamping and if so how accepting of this choice were your health care professionals?

I was shocked when i read that if you cut the cord right away you could deprive the baby of 54 - 160 mls of blood which in a newborn baby could be up to a half of their total blood volume!


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## milkmachine

i didnt have faiths cord cut until her cord had gone white. the midwife was respectful of this


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## Tacey

I waited until the cord stopped pulsing. The midwives didn't find this an odd request at all. I then had a physiological third stage.


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## JennTheMomma

We wanted to with Hunter, but OB told DH to cut cord right away so he could be on oxygen. We're planning a homebirth with a Midwife this time and she is in favor of not cutting cord until it stops or until placenta is out.


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## kirsten1985

I didn't do this but will be doing next time. I would like to wait until the placenta is delivered before the cord is cut.


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## saraendepity

I wanted to do this but in the end i didnt write a birth plan:dohh: and i forgot to tell the MW i wanted to wait and i wanted to have a natural 3rd stage.....ended up getting cord cut straight away and getting jabbed in the thigh :cry: next time i will tho :) definately :)


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## anothersquish

Had a natural third stage this time and his cord wasnt cut til the placenta was delivered (was about 20 minutes) 
I had a homebirth and it seems its a common request to the community midwives, they were all perfectly accepting of my wish to have a natural 3rd stage and delayed cord clamping.


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## madasa

I am planning to wait before cutting the cord this time round... preferably until it goes white and stops pulsing. 

Linkage! https://academicobgyn.com/2009/12/0...ng-should-be-standard-practice-in-obstetrics/


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## PinkyLou

I wanted the cord to be left til it had finished pulsating both times, first time though Indie had to be rushed to the recuss trolley thing cause she swallowed some of her own meconium, second time the mw didnt read my notes :(


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## Rachel_C

I didn't know about waiting when I had Leyla. Next time I would like to wait until the cord stops pulsing. I was shocked by that article too!


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## mummypeanut

ive requested DCC and the midwife has agreed it no questions asked. They did say that if its something you feel very strognly about to make sure you tell them as well as putting it on ur birth plan - belt and braces approach, it just makes sure the info doesnt get missed by a lazy midwife who doesnt read your plan properly :thumbup:


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## bunnyg82

OOh good thread - I have heard about this before and ever since really wanted to do this but was worried about the midwives reaction. Obviously as long as baby doesn't need urgent medical help (fingers crossed!) then I would love for this to happen so will put it in birth plan, try and remember to tell midwife and also make sure hubby is on board too :) x


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## TigerLady

I had never heard of this!

Silly question... is it possible if you have to have a c section? Or do the HAVE to cut the cord right away in a section?

Sorry if that is a dumb question, but I know nothing about DCC. :blush:


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## madasa

I would imagine they would need to cut the cord so that they can stitch the mum? But even a delay of, say, a minute, would be beneficial. I don't know a lot about surgery, so I don't know what sort of delay would be feasible :shrug:


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## TigerLady

Yeah, that is what I was wondering. I think they cut it as soon as possible so they can clean the placenta out and sew mom up. :shrug: 

I wonder if I could get them to delay even a minute or so... or is that even applicable in a section? Does the whole thing change and become moot for a section as it isn't a "natural" birth anyway with baby going through the canal? It is not as if baby says, okay, I am ready to come now. :dohh:

:grr: @ Otter for staying breech and dooming me to sections! :dohh:


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## madasa

Waiting until it goes white and stops pulsing would mean that baby gets his full blood volume. I imagine that waiting a teeny bit would have some of the same benefit even if the baby has not come out the "normal" way. If there is still blood in the placenta, then there is benefit to waiting for some of it to cross regardless of how he comes out...? This is me GUESSING here, just trying to think logically...


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## adzuki

TL, sorry, but here they wouldn't do it. I had requested it, but when I had the c section, that (like everything else on my birth plan) went out the window. I was told it is too risky for the mother to be lying there open, and so they want the baby and placenta out as fast as possible to prevent infection. 

Sheesh, and I just realized that I still have a lot of strong negative feelings about how my birth went. Just when you though you'd worked everything through!!! 

:)
A


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## Parkep

i have a question :blush: i guess if you want to collect cord blood cells you couldn't wait for it to turn white could you? sorry if its a stupid question.


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## buttonnose82

parkep -no i don't think so as it turns white as their is no blood left

TigerLady - I think in regards to a section it would depend very much on the hospital, in the article I read they said it is possible and all they need to wait is 30 seconds for a baby to get a good dose of the blood back

I spoke to future hubby about it this morning and he is all for it yay!


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## Vici

I was going to and it was in my birth plan but had an em c section and Imi had to go straight to resus and i needed sorting after losing over a litre of blood, it just wasn't possible! :(


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## milkmachine

Parkep said:


> i have a question :blush: i guess if you want to collect cord blood cells you couldn't wait for it to turn white could you? sorry if its a stupid question.

surely those stem cells are better off in the baby though


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## Kota

DCC won't make a difference to stem cell collection as they get those from the placenta itself and even when you allow the cord to stop pulsing there will still be blood/stem cells left in the placenta for storage/donation,. 

i really wanted this but because Oompa came shooting out so quickly the cord had actually ripped ragged regardless. it needed to be clamped, cut and the placenta birthed asap to stop it from bleeding out or the part of the cord still attatched to the placenta going back up inside. :nope:


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## K477uk

TigerLady said:


> I had never heard of this!
> 
> Silly question... is it possible if you have to have a c section? Or do the HAVE to cut the cord right away in a section?
> 
> Sorry if that is a dumb question, but I know nothing about DCC. :blush:

I asked for a natural 3rd stage and for the cord to be left, which as most have said here wasn't greated with any surprise. But I didn't end up having this because of ending in an emergancy section. Unfortuantly it is far to dangerous to leave it still attached for that! (I did ask... with the assumption that it was no.. as was kind of laughed at in a very nice way!!)


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## Jetters

I think i'd like to do this! Silly Q- is the cord long enough for the baby to go on your chest for skin-to-skin while the placenta is still inside?


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## faun

I didn't ask for delayed cord clamping but whem my lo was born they put him on my chest and left him there with the cord attached and no clamps while they wrote a few things in my notes and then clamped and cut the cord.


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## Kota

Jetters said:


> I think i'd like to do this! Silly Q- is the cord long enough for the baby to go on your chest for skin-to-skin while the placenta is still inside?


generally, yes it is. :thumbup:


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## Blob

Yea this time i plan on having a home birth and will ask for it too...though for some reason with Tabs i thought the idea was gross. But am still going to get the sodding placenta out asap as that was nasty for me last time.


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## marley2580

TigerLady said:


> I had never heard of this!
> 
> Silly question... is it possible if you have to have a c section? Or do the HAVE to cut the cord right away in a section?
> 
> Sorry if that is a dumb question, but I know nothing about DCC. :blush:

See if you can find a doc that will do a 'natural' caesarian 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2613254/
https://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article6028478.ece
https://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2005/dec/03/health.medicineandhealth

That's what I'm going for next time.


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## gina8177

Kota said:


> DCC won't make a difference to stem cell collection as they get those from the placenta itself and even when you allow the cord to stop pulsing there will still be blood/stem cells left in the placenta for storage/donation,.
> 
> i really wanted this but because Oompa came shooting out so quickly the cord had actually ripped ragged regardless. it needed to be clamped, cut and the placenta birthed asap to stop it from bleeding out or the part of the cord still attatched to the placenta going back up inside. :nope:

Crazy, I'll have to look into that. I had given up on stem cell collection because I assumed that it wouldn't allow delayed cord cutting. But if I can wait till the cord goes white/stops pulsing and still collect stem cells, that would be awesome.


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## TigerLady

marley2580 said:


> TigerLady said:
> 
> 
> I had never heard of this!
> 
> Silly question... is it possible if you have to have a c section? Or do the HAVE to cut the cord right away in a section?
> 
> Sorry if that is a dumb question, but I know nothing about DCC. :blush:
> 
> See if you can find a doc that will do a 'natural' caesarian
> 
> https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2613254/
> https://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article6028478.ece
> https://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2005/dec/03/health.medicineandhealth
> 
> That's what I'm going for next time.Click to expand...

OMG! That is SOOO cool! I would give loads to be able to do this. It is so opposite of what I experienced last time. I didn't even get to SEE or HEAR by baby for almost 30-45 minutes after he was born. :cry: Even my MIL saw him before I did. 

Unfortunately, I live in a small town where I have only one option for a surgeon... my OB. But he is pretty forward thinking. He is actually very frustrated that the hospital here doesn't allow VBACs. I will be printing these articles and giving them to him. Maybe he can convince the hospital to at least let me have some part of this. 

I would most love to see my baby being born and be able to hold him/her right after birth. Even if only for a minute....


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## mommyof3co

My midwife did this with Hayden. I had meant to talk to her about it before or during and completely forgot but she did it automatically. I think it's more common with midwives as they are more for the natural approach to childbirth...but not everyone has a midwife here.


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## purple_kiwi

TigerLady said:


> marley2580 said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> TigerLady said:
> 
> 
> I had never heard of this!
> 
> Silly question... is it possible if you have to have a c section? Or do the HAVE to cut the cord right away in a section?
> 
> Sorry if that is a dumb question, but I know nothing about DCC. :blush:
> 
> See if you can find a doc that will do a 'natural' caesarian
> 
> https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2613254/
> https://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article6028478.ece
> https://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2005/dec/03/health.medicineandhealth
> 
> That's what I'm going for next time.Click to expand...
> 
> OMG! That is SOOO cool! I would give loads to be able to do this. It is so opposite of what I experienced last time. I didn't even get to SEE or HEAR by baby for almost 30-45 minutes after he was born. :cry: Even my MIL saw him before I did.
> 
> Unfortunately, I live in a small town where I have only one option for a surgeon... my OB. But he is pretty forward thinking. He is actually very frustrated that the hospital here doesn't allow VBACs. I will be printing these articles and giving them to him. Maybe he can convince the hospital to at least let me have some part of this.
> 
> I would most love to see my baby being born and be able to hold him/her right after birth. Even if only for a minute....Click to expand...

i know how you feel about the not being able to see baby after birth. i had an emergancy c-section and only saw her for like 2 min before she was taken away for about an hour. ive seen pics of her now spending that first hr with everyone else but not me. it was hard.

i wanted delayed cord clamping but i couldnt have that with the c-section :(


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## OmiOmen

This will be my first birth so I have not done it but it is in my birth-plan. I had a stand in midwife at my last appointment and asked her about it and she said the MW led unit I should be in will be fine with doing it but I plan on going over my whole birth-plan with my MW at the next appointment. Obviously like anything in birth-plan it can only be done if I stay low risk and it all goes well but the delayed cord clamping is one thing I feel strongly about because I want him to have all his blood and not be deprived of iron (especially since I will be BF which obviously is made for a natural birth and does not take early cord cutting into account by adding iron like formula does). So fingers crossed that I will not run into any problems with the whole thing.


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