Pregnancies: Don’t let the umbilical cord get cut too soon

Ask yourself, how often you go against nature. Not necessarily you, but what is done with and to you. One example is the immediate cutting of a baby’s umbilical cord right after being born.

“Doctor knows best”? Not always.

So who is right? Nature or standard operating procedures in the hospital?

Well, the World Health Organization has recommended that even in full-term babies, waiting up to 2 minutes after birth would be ideal because that would enhance the amount of blood they get, and most importantly, they end up getting more iron and more red cells and more iron. This will prevent them from having potentially iron deficiency anemia, which is a major problem in the rest of the world, particularly because iron is important for learning and growth, and deficiency of iron can make you susceptible for infections. And worldwide, almost a third to one-half of children in their first year are significantly deficient in iron. So World Health has made a strong recommendation that you need to wait until at least 2 minutes or longer before you cut the cord at birth.

You may want to consider even 2 minutes being too short of a time. It is a quote from NICHD scientist explains what’s known about when to cut, and when to wait.
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