Dr. Alan Greene Says Waiting To Clamp Umbilical Cord Is Key To Better Health For Babies
by Jennifer Chait, 01/05/13
Image courtesy of Shutterstock
According to Dr. Alan Greene, a pediatrician who’s well known by parents everywhere, the simple act of waiting a bit longer (just 90 seconds) to clamp a newborn’s umbilical cord at birth may be the key to saving the lives and health of millions of babies around the world. Waiting to clamp the cord, or as Greene calls it, TICC TOCC (Transitioning Immediate Cord Clamping To Optimal Cord Clamping) will benefit all babies around the world — because if you wait to clamp the umbilical cord, a baby will receive an immediate transfusion of red blood cells, white blood cells, oxygen and antibodies, all of which may equal better health.
Greene notes that iron deficiency is the leading cause of anemia and that, “Even when iron deficiency is not severe enough to cause anemia, it has been linked to lasting damage to the developing brain.” Because infancy is an important time to fight off iron deficiency, and because right after birth, the umbilical cord actively pumps iron-rich, oxygen-rich, stem-cell-rich blood into a baby, Greene believes waiting to clamp may decrease iron deficiency in babies and in turn, result in healthier babies all over the world. Also according to Greene, The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that we could increase world productivity by 20% simply by solving iron deficiency in developing nations. This is not the first time the umbilical cord debate has popped up. Past research also says that we likely cut the cord too early, thus denying our babies vital umbilical cord blood and crucial stem cells. Even with growing research about the benefits of waiting to clamp the cord, most hospitals are still clamping early — so as a parent you may want to consider including, “waiting to cut the cord” in your birth plan. Watch the video above to see Greene discuss this issue at his recent talk at TEDxBrussels.
Please advise Dr. Green that 90 second cord delay is not optimal cord clamping. What is optimal time is not to clamp the umbilical cord until after the placenta is birthed and all pulsation has ceased in the cord. What Dr. Green is concealing is sharing the placenta blood yet left in the placenta and some in the cord with stakeholder’s interest in private blood that belongs in the baby. When the cord is not clamped until after the completion of the birth, there is hardly any collection from the placenta or the cord. Where is the blood. It is inside the baby where it rightfully belongs to make a stronger and healither child. This is primal birth choice and it may require a signed birth contract supported by a Court Order that no doctors do their own standard of care early cord clamping, now called delayed optimal cord clamping of a mere 90 seconds.
When Judith S. Mercer, was rewarded for her research and began her 30-second clamping on premature babies, no one fully understood this want not optimal time for a premature baby who needed optimal time of no cord clamping until their placenta, too was birthed and all pulsation ceased in the cord. What the public may not know is that some babies died in the two control groups, instant cord clamped babies and those in the 30 second cord clamped group. There is always no control group of babies who are not clamped at all, or until after their placenta is birthed and all pulsation ceases in the cord. This time period may take from 12 to over 20 minutes, and the wait is worth it to have a stronger and healtheir baby.
It is a fictional and medical lie or certainly a myth, that babies premature or full term will get too much blood and stating man knows better than God’s design to create blood just right for the sex of the baby, its size when born and its altitude. There were no control groups to prove too much blood of no clamped babies.
I am tired of deception that doctors are in a collusion to take the trapped blood in the placenta and sell it or their institution where they contract as a private medical practioner.