About two decades ago, it became “fashionable” to save the umbilical cord when a new baby was born. The cells from the cord were harvested and saved should a familial member in fact need stem cell therapy in the future. To be honest, most of the saved cells were used for siblings, not the actual child from which the cord was saved.
This practice grew large enough to have both private and public cord blood banks. And, it involves big money- the cost runs from $100 a month, with a $ 1K or $2K initial fee.
It turns out that there is yet another aspect to to dealing with a baby’s umbilical cord. Instead of immediately cutting the cord upon birth, we should wait some 2 minutes before we sever the connection. This facet is critical for the 13 million premature babies born every year; of these some 1 million succumb within the first month of life. (This is the leading cause of death among infants.)
By waiting to sever the umbilical cord, we change that potential death rate; the baby’s survival rate is extended. The iron rich blood, stem cells, and antibodies wihtin the umbilical cord are able to flow back to the baby.
This practice is now suggested for all babies born who did not complete 37 weeks of gestation. The improved circulation, lower demand for blood transfusions leads to better recovery, fewer complications- including in the digestive tract.
This was confirmed by two recent articles. The first, by lead author, Dr. Al. Seidler, Deferred Cord Clamping, cord milking, and immediate cord clamping at preterm birth; a systematic review and individual participant data meta analysis, (The Lancet), included data from 6367 babies.
The second article include data from 6094 babies, also with the same lead author Dr AL Seidler, found that longer clamping time delays provided better results. Also published in the Lancet, this study compared different clamping times. (Short, medium, and long deferral of umbilical cord clamping compared with umbilical cord milking and immediate clamping at preterm birth: a systematic review and network meta-analysis with individual participant data) Only in the cases when the premature infant needed immediate resuscitation was the umbilical cord immediately severed.
This is the first I’ve heard of this (the delay in cutting the cord, that is). I’ll be sharing that information.
I thought it was pretty ingenious, myself, Alana!