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Cutting Umbilical Cord Early Eliminates Stem Cells

Posted by timothy on from the just-leave-it-on-a-few-years dept.

GeneralSoh writes "Delaying clamping the umbilical cord at birth may have far-reaching benefits for your baby, according to researchers at the University of South Florida's Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair — and should be delayed for at least a few minutes longer after birth. This new recommendation published in the most recent Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine (14:3) notes that delaying clamping the umbilical cord allows more umbilical cord blood and crucial stem cells to transfer from mama to baby."

6 of 139 comments (clear)

  1. Re:ORLY? by canajin56 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Oh, if only they had done extensive research on it, instead of just saying "Sounds reasonable, lets publish!" then they would have caught that major flaw! Too bad you weren't around to keep them honest!

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    ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI
  2. Re:ORLY? by asukasoryu · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I would think that newborns are at a critical developmental stage and need all the help they can get. If I sucked out a significant portion of your blood, it would set you back a bit and you've been around more than 9 months.

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    There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
  3. "...delayed for at least a few minutes longer..." by willoughby · · Score: 4, Insightful

    A few minutes longer than.. what?

  4. Re:ORLY? by Itninja · · Score: 4, Insightful

    There are quite a few things relating to circulation that don't happen until a few moments after birth (i.e. blood pressure, heart rate, heart valve changes). Perhaps a stem cell transference has something to do with that...

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  5. Re:Birthing centers already do this by kd5zex · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What is shocking is that most OBs don't know it.

    It's not that they don't know, it's more likely most don't give a damn.

    And don't blindly trust the doctors.

    Fantastic advice, OBs often capitalize on the stressful situation and play the "dead baby card" quite often to do things their way.

  6. Re:Reminds me of my mother by interkin3tic · · Score: 3, Insightful

    My sister's cat is going to feel pretty silly about gnawing through all of her umbilical cords and eating the placentas. Next time I'll be sure to let Mittens know about the stem cells.

    To be fair, she probably thinks we're the silly ones for wasting all those tasty stem cells on our measly one-offspring litters.