| Concerns about umbilical cord clamping |
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| Home -------- Site Map Apgar Oxygen an urgent ongoing need Transition fetal to postnatal circulation Tradition Protocols Outcomes >>Concerns (NCS p3) Question Authority References Links Notes Contact: Eileen Nicole Simon eileen4brainresearch@yahoo.com |
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| The National Children's Study |
Placental blood is respiratory blood |
Umbilical cord clamping, a human invention |
Waiting for the first breath, a long tradition |
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| 3. Waiting for the first breath, a long tradition |
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| It should go without saying that a newborn infant must be breathing before the umbilical cord is clamped. Until the mid 1980s most textbooks taught this explicitly, and many encouraged waiting for pulsation of the cord to stop, as can be seen from the following quotes: |
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| “If the child be healthy, and not have suffered from pressure, &c. it will cry as soon as it is born, and when respiration is established, it may be separated from its mother…” – Churchill 1850, |
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| p 132 [36]. |
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| “A strong healthy child, as soon as it is born, will begin to breathe freely, and in most cases cry vigorously. As soon as it has thus given satisfactory proof of its respiratory power, you may at once proceed to separate it from its mother by tying and dividing the umbilical cord.” – Swayne 1856, p 20 [37]. |
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| "The cord should not be tied until the child has breathed vigorously a few times. When there is no occasion for haste, it is safer to wait until the pulsations of the cord have ceased altogether." – Lusk 1882, pp214-215 [38]. |
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| "In cases of suspended animation, the cord should not be tied until it has ceased to pulsate, as there is a possibility in such circumstances, of a certain amount of placental respiration…" – Leishman 1888, p 320 [39]. |
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| "Q: When an infant is born what is the proper treatment to adopt to severing the umbilical cord? |
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| A: You must first assure yourself that the child is alive and breathing …" – Corney 1899, p 5 [40]. |
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| Posted: February 27, 2006 (a work in progress) |
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| References: |
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