MSE Pregnancy Club 28

glimmerofhope

I had planned a natural placenta delivery with my first but after an hour of it not delivering they gave me the injection and I still had to go to surgery for a retained placenta, I had DS at 3.00pm and went to surgery at 5.00pm.Was there until 8pm so away from my baby. This time I had decided already on the injection as if like before I had a natural non invasive birth I didn't want to end up in surgery and having to stay in. My placenta delivered in 20 mins with Finley.
I think again you need to be open to your birth plan changing and everyone is different.

RobotsinDisguse

I'd choose delayed cord clamping, skin to skin, early first feed, weighing afterwards etc...
And therefore natural third stage. For same reasons as Skintchick (do I need to buy Birkenstocks? Lol!). 1/3 of baby's blood is in the cord & placenta at any one time.... So even a delayed clamping by a couple of minutes is beneficial.
(I've read they used to prefer to do it as baby is born & clamped due to you bring distracted from the injection pain!)

My hospital aim to delay clamping with everyone, so delayed injection must be possible.

credit_crunch

Are they any concerns/complications (to mum or baby) with delayed cord clamping?
It's something I haven't looked into yet x

LailaP_2

All this delayed cord clamping stuff is very interesting. My Mw hasn't mentioned any of this to me (maybe she would nearer the time?)

I've sort of been blindly going into this in some sort of denial about actually giving birth so haven't really done my own research. This is why I love this thread though as it gives me things to read up on so I can make an informed choice.

skintchick

credit_crunch wrote: »

Are they any concerns/complications (to mum or baby) with delayed cord clamping?
It's something I haven't looked into yet x

Not that I know of. It's not so much delayed clamping, really, as the opposite being premature clamping - the blood in the cord and placenta is blood that has, in utero, been part of the baby's circulatory system, so it is blood the baby needs.

Obviously if there is an emergency happeneing then it may be necessary to clamp the cord so that other things can be done, but in most circumstances it's possible to delay until the cord has stopped pulsing (a few minutes) and the blood is out of the placenta.

There are some links here:
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/263181.php


This one https://www.acog.org/Resources_And_Publications/Committee_Opinions/Committee_on_Obstetric_Practice/Timing_of_Umbilical_Cord_Clamping_After_Birth says:

Delay in umbilical cord clamping may jeopardize timely resuscitation efforts, if needed, especially in preterm infants. However, because the placenta continues to perform gas exchange after delivery, sick and preterm infants are likely to benefit most from additional blood volume derived from a delay in umbilical cord clamping. Another concern has been raised that delay in umbilical cord clamping increases the potential for excessive placental transfusion, which can lead to neonatal polycythemia, especially in the presence of risk factors for fetal polycythemia, such as maternal diabetes, severe intrauterine growth restriction, and high altitude. Additionally, delayed umbilical cord clamping (with the infant placed at or below the level of the placenta) may be technically difficult in some circumstances.
and
Neonatal Outcomes

Physiologic studies in term infants have shown that a transfer from the placenta of approximately 80 mL of blood occurs by 1 minute after birth, reaching approximately 100 mL at 3 minutes after birth (16, 31, 32). This additional blood can supply extra iron, amounting to 40–50 mg/kg of body weight. This extra iron, combined with body iron (approximately 75 mg/kg of body weight) present at birth in a full-term newborn, may help prevent iron deficiency during the first year of life (33).
Several systematic reviews have suggested that clamping the umbilical cord in all births should be delayed for at least 30–60 seconds, with the infant maintained at or below the level of the placenta because of the associated neonatal benefits (1, 21, 29, 33–35), including increased blood volume (2, 3, 13, 31, 36–40), reduced need for blood transfusion (17, 22, 41), decreased incidence of intracranial hemorrhage in preterm infants (10, 18, 29), and decreased frequency of iron deficiency anemia in term infants (7–9, 13, 24–26, 35–37, 40, 42).
In addition, a longer duration of placental transfusion after birth may be beneficial because this blood is enriched with immunoglobulins and stem cells, which provide the potential for improved organ repair and rebuilding after injury from disorders caused by preterm birth (39, 43). Although the magnitude of the benefits from enhanced placental stem cell transfusion has not been well studied, the other neonatal benefits have led investigators to consider revising umbilical cord clamping practice guidelines (4, 28, 40, 44–48).
Maternal Outcomes

The effect of delayed umbilical cord clamping on maternal outcomes has not been adequately studied. Some studies have shown no increase in the incidence of postpartum hemorrhage from delayed umbilical cord clamping. However, this remains a theoretic concern because blood flow through the spiral arteries and veins in a term uterus is approximately 600 mL/min. Concerns regarding maternal risks become particularly relevant in special circumstances in which the benefits of delayed umbilical cord clamping need to be balanced with the timely resuscitation of the woman (eg, in cases of hemorrhage from placenta previa or placental abruption after delivery of a preterm infant).

And this one http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/708616_6 says:
The practice of delayed cord clamping has shown many benefits to the newborn with no documentation of significant risk. #

HTH

skintchick

While we're on the subject of the third stage, has everyone heard of Lotus birth?

http://www.lotusbirth.net/

I considered one with DD but the cord was too short for me to feed her while waiting for the placenta to come out so in the end we cut it. This time I don;t think I can be faffed with carrying the placenta around with me as well as the baby, but I haven;t totally made my mind up (OH is freaked by the whole idea though).

wangdoodle

The midwife discussed managed/ natural 3rd stage at my 36 week appointment, which I had at the birth centre so we could look around. My hospital do delayed cord clamping as standard procedure but offer the choice of whether or not to have the injection. I said I didn't know what I preferred. I don't think the lotus birth is for me tbh, but sounds interesting.

Disney_Pluto

Hey Everyone,

You all seem to know so much about birthing options. I'm hoping that starting my antenatal classes this week will give me some idea.

Just wondering I've had this numbness in between my breasts/stomach area for a little while. Not massively uncomfortable but as I touch it I don't feel much. Does anyone else have this? When speaking to MW she said it was stretched skin but just wondering if anyone's had it and if they managed to do anything about it?

Hope everyone's well.

Peonie

WTDN, how do you have so many scan pictures? Did she do scans for you at home? The hypnobirthinh classes are free and if it helps than why not.

Everyone is really informed about the birth and their choices. I have no idea.

RobotsinDisguse

This is from the website / fb pg I follow re cord clamping. They just shared this:

"Did you know: infants who have delayed cord clamping benefit from a whopping 32% more blood volume than infants who have immediate cord clamping? This includes around 27-47 mg of iron, equivalent to 1-2 months of an infant’s iron requirements. Find out more here." http://www.bellybelly.com.au/birth/cord-clamping-delaying-cord-clamping#.U7CQ3ye9KSM