Delayed Cord Clamping

I'd like to hear more too. Here for the comments.

Delayed umbilical cord clamping is associated with significant neonatal benefits in preterm infants, including improved transitional circulation, better establishment of red blood cell volume, decreased need for blood transfusion, and lower incidence of necrotizing enterocolitis and intraventricular hemorrhage.

https://www.muhealth.org/our-stories/4-reasons-consider-delayed-cord-clamping

Everyone’s interpretation is a little different! Some people refer to it as waiting until the umbilical cord goes white I believe, and others will say a couple mins is a delay. I’ve heard the longer you can wait, the better. I asked to wait at least a few mins which was apparently standard at the location I gave birth.

I really wanted this but my birth was very quick and ‘traumatic’ so didn’t even have time to ask. It was in my birth plan but don’t think anyone even looked at it because of the rush.
Not sure it was possible as he needed to be checked straight away so they cut the cord immediately. Anything can happen!

Apparently 20 mins delay will put 1 pint of blood back to the baby, I hope to do this but also to encapsulate my placenta into a balm for healing and post partum depression, so hopefully I can at least delay for 20 mins! I really don’t know why it became such a quick thing to cut and get on with 🤷‍♀️

In our hospital it was standard practice, but they did double check if we were happy to do that. Which we did while we had our first cuddle.
It was pretty cool coz she even asked if we wanted to watch her check over his placenta and what she was looking for and why etc which was really interesting. I just can't remember the details now though x

It was standard practice at my hospital too.

We had it done. It’s not a long delayed process still feels super fast but is supposed to be beneficial.

i really wanted a delayed clamp but i ended up with a c section

I did this with my son, we waited until the cord stopped pulsing before clamping and cutting 💙 soo many benefits including increased blood volume for Bub.

I asked for this at my birth too, the OB was totally on board and waited until after I delivered the placenta and the cord stopped pulsing to clamp and cut. HOWEVER, if we have another baby I’ll be asking for an immediate cord clamp. My husband and I have different blood types and my baby got his blood type - thus ended up with severe jaundice. Having the extra blood from the placenta/cord actually did a lot more damage than good in our case. We were in the NICU for a week.

ACOG recommends at least 30-60 seconds and some other groups recommend up to 5 mins but I didn't see any recommendations longer than that. It does have benefits as others have said. In a full term infant there is some increased risk of jaundice but that's treatable with phototherapy so doesn't outweigh the benefits. https://www.acog.org/clinical/clinical-guidance/committee-opinion/articles/2020/12/delayed-umbilical-cord-clamping-after-birth#:~:text=Recent%20Neonatal%20Resuscitation%20Program%20guidelines,vigorous%20term%20and%20preterm%20infants.

Yes! I have 4 kids and each one they waited a bit longer. With my 4th, he was on my chest and the cord was attached for awhile. All of the blood in it is extremely beneficial.

Also, I think it had a lot to do with them letting him lay on me and rest. They gave us space and I laid there for about an hour before they did much of anything.

https://www.acog.org/clinical/clinical-guidance/committee-opinion/articles/2020/12/delayed-umbilical-cord-clamping-after-birth