Alright what we are talking about here is WHEN to clamp and cut the umbilical cord.
Though I did discover that it is practiced occasionally to never cut or clamp the cord at all, and just allow the cord to separate naturally from the baby, which takes several days (seven days in the case I read). It is called a lotus birth. The placenta was carried around in a bag near the baby until the cord naturally detached from the baby. Just saying it is an option...
Let's talk about what is going on at birth and right after with the baby and the placenta they are still attached to via the umbilical cord:
-After birth the baby's body is going through huge circulatory changes
-The blood in the cord and placenta are a reservoir to aid this placental transfusion (or redistribution).
-As baby squeezes through birth canal, some blood leaves baby and goes back into the placenta
-With each afterbirth contraction, blood is transfused back into baby and then back to placenta during rest periods.
-Crying slows the intake of blood, as does vessel constriction within cord, which basically means the baby can regulate how much blood is being transfused according to their individual needs.
-The majority of the transfusion is done in about 3 minutes (but sometimes as quick as 1 minute and sometimes longer than 3 minutes).
-A skin-to-skin newborn (with their mom) with an unclamped cord can continue to redistribute blood volume until the ideal amount is reached. THEIR optimum amount, which is NOT standard - every baby is different.
This system is currently inoperable in many places since cord-clamping is commonly done 10 to 30 seconds after birth. Early cord clamping deprives baby of an estimated 1.8 to 5.1 ounces of blood. At the upper limit of 5.1 ounces, that is almost half of baby's total volume! The average (natural) placental transfusion is one-fourth to one-third of newborn's total blood volume. Cesarean-born baby's have an even higher risk of no placental transfusion, as the cord is often cut right away.
The best thing to do for the baby is to place naked baby on mom, skin-to-skin, with wrapped placenta until the cord stops pulsating. Then the blood transfusion is done, and baby has their individual, ideal blood volume. Waiting even one minute shows marked improvement in baby.
Risks of early cord clamping:
-Baby loses the iron in that blood they didn't get
-Increased risk of anemia by five times, for baby
-Related to cerebral palsy, autism, and learning difficulties
-Wet lungs are more likely when cesarean babies are deprived of their full placental transfusion
-Especially important to not clamp the cord when resuscitation is needed, as you don't want to deprive them of any of the oxygen in that blood
The practice of clamping the cord right away by doctors is done, supposedly, 'to prevent postpartum hemorrhage'. Though 1 in 6 women who were "actively managed" this way, bled anyway. Whereas a "blood transfusion for postpartum hemorrhage was never necessary" in any of the 26,000 Bantu women who all birthed baby and placenta upright and did nothing to the cord until placenta was delivered.
Side note: It is not worth paying to have the baby's cord blood stored. Research is showing that very rarely (3 total cases ever), is the blood actually helpful, and not infected with the disease they are trying to treat. And in those three cases, there were other possible treatments anyway. And cord blood banking requires early cord clamping. It seems to me that it makes a lot more sense to just let that blood go into and be stored in the baby, rather than pay a bazillion dollars to store it elsewhere.
