Imagine you’re picking a perfectly ripe piece of fruit from a tree. If you pluck it too early, you miss the sweetest burst of flavour and vital nutrients left in those final moments of ripening. Delayed cord clamping (DCC) works similarly, giving your baby every last drop of blood from the umbilical cord before it’s cut. This simple pause can increase your baby’s blood volume and boost their iron levels for up to 6 months after birth.
Delayed cord clamping helps with cord blood banking by ensuring more blood flows into the umbilical cord. Cord blood banking involves collecting and preserving stem cells from your baby’s umbilical cord, which can be used for potential medical treatments in the future. By opting for delayed cord clamping, you can give your baby a secure and healthy start in life.
Delayed Cord Clamping: A Quick Overview
Delayed cord clamping is the method where the umbilical cord is not immediately clamped and cut right after delivery. Instead, there is a short delay, typically around 60 seconds, allowing blood to continue flowing from the placenta to the newborn. Delayed cord clamping is now widely used in many hospitals globally for both vaginal and caesarean births.
Let us further understand how delayed cord clamping benefits your newborn.
Benefits Of Delayed Cord Clamping
- Boost Iron Levels
Delayed cord clamping allows additional iron-rich blood to flow to your baby. This increased iron supply helps prevent anemia, giving your baby the energy necessary for healthier growth.
- Improves Brain Development
Delayed cord clamping allows more blood (rich in oxygen and vital nutrients) to flow from the placenta to the baby. Thus this additional blood flow supports healthy brain development, improves cognitive function and the overall well-being of your baby.
- Helps Prevent Complications For Mothers
DCC reduces the amount of blood remaining in the placenta. This lowers the risk of a retained placenta—a condition where the placenta isn’t fully removed after delivery. By helping the placenta detach smoothly, it ensures better recovery for mothers post-childbirth.
- Lowers Inflammation In Newborns
Delayed cord clamping can help reduce inflammation associated with conditions like respiratory issues in newborns. Thus allowing more blood to flow from the placenta to the baby, thereby delivering additional stem cells and anti-inflammatory agents into the baby’s bloodstream. These elements help regulate the baby’s inflammatory responses, thus reducing the risk of early respiratory complications and other developmental issues.
- Helps Develop Motor & Social Skills
A study found that delaying cord clamping can lead to significant long-term benefits for a child’s development. The study noted that children, particularly boys, whose umbilical cords were cut later, showed much better motor and social skills by age four. This benefit comes from the extra blood and nutrients the baby receives in those important first minutes after birth. These nutrients are crucial for developing healthy brain and nerve cells.
How Delayed Cord Clamping Complements Cord Blood Banking
Delayed cord clamping and cord blood banking are two important practices that work well together to help babies and their families. So when you opt for delayed clamping of your baby’s umbilical cord, they get more nutrients and blood from the placenta. This not only gives your baby a healthy start but also improves the amount and quality of stem cells that can be collected if you choose to bank the cord blood.
The Benefits Of Cord Blood Banking
Cord blood banking is a safe and painless process for both mom and baby. It involves collecting stem cells from the umbilical cord after birth, without interfering with the delivery. These stem cells can be stored for decades, offering potential treatments for conditions like cancer, genetic and immune disorders and more. Cord blood stem cells also have a higher chance of matching family members and are less likely to be rejected in transplants. Also, with ongoing research, it provides hope for future medical breakthroughs. Therefore, choosing a reputable and reliable stem cell bank is essential to ensure that these life-saving resources are available when needed.
Choosing The Best Bank: Why LifeCell Stands Out?
LifeCell is India’s first, largest, and most trusted Community Stem Cell Bank, combining the benefits of public and private banking models.
Here are some compelling reasons why expectant parents should consider enrolling with LifeCell:
- It protects the baby and family from over 80 medical conditions.
- There is a greater than 97% probability of finding a perfect match.
- Members have ready access to over 75,000 community cord blood units.
- Members benefit from India’s dual storage transplantation facilities.
For more information, visit HYPERLINK “http://www.lifecell.in/”www.lifecell.in.
Conclusion
Delayed cord clamping is a simple yet important step to ensure your baby gets immediate and long-term health perks. Moreover, to take advantage of this practice, discuss it with your doctor, include it in your birth plan, and have someone on your side to back you up during delivery. As more parents advocate for DCC, it has the potential to become a standard practice in maternity care, giving every baby the healthiest possible start in life.
