The Pros And Cons Of The Cord Clamping Process

Cord clamping is a procedure where a baby’s umbilical cord is clamped and cut. This procedure clamps off the baby’s arteries and vein contained within the cord, which can immediately halt circulation depending on when the clamps are applied. Cord clamping might be done prior, during, immediately after or hours after birth. When cord severance is performed a plastic clamp is also applied to the remaining cord to prevent blood loss from the baby. I chose this topic because it is very interesting to see the differences between early cord clamping and the delayed cord clamping process. There are a few differences that I have found when doing my research on how delayed cord clamping can benefit the baby.

There has been some controversy on when the cord clamping should really be. If the nurses just waited for a full minute or more could this benefit the mother and baby? While delaying cord clamping could this cause harm to mother or infant? These are the questions professional are debating on to determine if the pros outweigh the cons of delayed cord clamping.

In most hospital delivery rooms, the doctors will routinely clamp and sever the umbilical cord with in fifteen to thirty seconds of the mother giving birth. When clamping the cord, the doctors will clamp the cord in two places, one close to the infant and then again in the middle of the cord another clamp. By delaying the clamping, fetal blood in the placental transfusion can provide the infant with an additional thirty percent more blood volume and up to sixty percent more blood cells (McDonald, S., & Middleton, P., 2009). This reduces the risk of the hemorrhaging that could occur after birth. But with new ongoing studies, it is said that by delaying the clamping of the cor...

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...elve hours after early cord clamping. There have been no alternatives to treatment at this time since this is a newer study. Committees have been looking at early versus delayed cord clamping on preemies and term babies to see where it has benefited them most.

In conclusion, there have been many demonstrated benefits from these studies about delayed cord clamping. Preterm infants really benefit from delayed cord clamping, whereas term infant don’t benefit as much although there is still some benefit. Delayed umbilical cord clamping for up to sixty seconds may increase total body iron and blood volume for the preterm baby. These potential benefits must be weighed against the increased risk for neonatal phototherapy (Chapman, 2013). More research is being conducted but thus far the improvements benefit the neonate and the mother for delaying the cord clamping.