Sumber : Gloria LeMay (http://www.lotusfertility.com)

 

Here’s some of the thoughts and ideas I have gleaned over the years about leaving the umbilical cord intact until  at least the placenta is birthed (extended delayed cord clamping) or not cutting it at all (lotus birth).

1.  Leaving the cord to pulse does “no harm” and therefore should be encouraged. If you can think  about what Nature intended, our ancestors way back before scissors and clamps were invented must have had to  wait to deal with the cord/placenta at least until the placenta was birthed. They probably chewed it, ground it with  rocks, or burned it through with hot sticks from the fire. The little teeth on the clamps indicate the traumatizing of  the vessels is necessary to quell bleeding. [Editor’s Note – Some midwives say that if you delay cutting the cord  until an hour or so after the birth, there will be no bleeding at all from the stump.] 2.  Leaving the cord alone slows down the “fire drill” energy that many birth attendants get into after  the baby is born. Leaving off the busyness of midwifery for a half hour allows the mother and baby undisturbed  bonding time without a “project ” going on i.e. the cord cutting instructions, explanations, jokes, etc. The father,  too , is undisturbed and able to enjoy this “high” time without focusing on a job at hand. 3.  Preventing brain lesions is important. Educator Joseph Chilton Pierce in his book “Magical Child” makes  reference to studies that were done on primates who gave birth in captivity and had early cord clamping.  Autopsies of the primates showed that early cord clamping produced unusual lesions in the brains of the animals.  These same lesions were also found in the brains of human infants when autopsied. 4.  In Rh neg women, many people believe that it is the clamping of a pulsing cord that causes the  blood of the baby to transfuse into the blood stream of the mother causing sensitization problems.  Robert S Mendelsohn, M.D., in his book “How to Have a Healthy Child. . . In Spite of Your Doctor” blames the  whole Rh neg problem on too quick clamping of the cord. Especially in Rh neg mothers I urge midwives to wait  until the placenta is out before thinking about cord clamping. 5.  I think it is interesting that scientists are now discovering that umbilical cord blood is full of valuable T-cells  which have cancer fighting properties. A whole industry has sprung up to have this precious blood extracted from  the placenta, put in a cooler with dry ice, and taken to a special storage facility to be ready in case the child gets  cancer at some time in the future. This is human insanity of the first order. That blood is designed by Nature  to go into that child’s body at birth, not 30 yrs later! We need to acknowledge that there are things about the  newborn circulation and blood composition that we just don’t know and we need to bet that Mother Nature had  things figured out pretty well for us to survive this long. Something to think about:  Maybe the supposed need for Vitamin K in the newborn comes out of early cord  clamping?  In my midwifery work (800 births) and practice of extended-delayed umbilical cord care, I have only  given Vit K to one baby (on Day 8 after having blood on the umbilicus every day < l tsp.–it was probably  unnecessary). I have only had one Rh neg woman who showed fetal cells in her blood (she had had a bad fall 2  days prior to birth). We have waited hours before cutting the cord and one couple never did cut it (just carried baby, cord and  placenta around together for days…). The nice thing about that was that it really limited the postpartum visitors  list! This is called Lotus Birthing and midwife Jeanine Parvati Baker is the modern goddess of that old frontier  method. If a baby needs resuscitation, it is important to leave the cord and do all work on Mom’s body. Cutting the back up  oxygen supply doesn’t make any sense at all. (The only time I cut a cord before the placenta comes out is if I have a mother in a water tub and I’m specifically  worried about blood loss. Then you want to get both out onto a dry surface quickly and sometimes it’s easier to  hand baby over to an adult while Mom is lifted separately).