What are the consequences of not severing it? I imagine you’d have the weirdest bellybutton on earth if nothing else.
Cheers!
This is an alternative birth method called “lotus birth” or more formally “umbilical non-severance” in which babies are left tethered to the delivered placenta until their cord desiccates and detaches from their body on its own, usually in 3-10 days, while applying salt to the placenta to increase the speed at which it dries. It will eventually fall off, however, after its delivery the placenta is no longer being supplied with the oxygenated blood it needs to survive, and becomes necrotic (dead). This can act as an easy entry point for infectious organisms to enter the neonate, and can result in life-threatening infections. Neither the American College of Obstetrics or the American Academy of Pediatrics have explicit guidance statements as to whether this should be recommended against. AAP has published that there have been multiple case reports of severe infections with various bacteria secondary to this practice.
This should not be confused/conflated with Delayed Cord Clamping, which is waiting 30-60 seconds after the baby’s delivery for some of the residual fetal blood in the placenta to be delivered to the baby’s circulation to prevent anemia. This has good evidence for benefit to the baby, is recommended by ACOG, and is basically standard of care in the US.
Source: ACOG and AAP publications, also I’m a 4th year medical student that has completed OBGYN rotations
You joke, but there are literally people who eat their own placenta. I know someone who did. Crystals and essential oils and energy healing and all that, you know. I don’t talk about that kind of stuff with her because for some reason we just can’t seem to find common ground lol
I’ve heard of people getting placenta pills to deal with the anemia after birth. I don’t plan on having kids and thus have never been interested enough to research it.
Lots of mammals eat the placenta. Eating it recovers some nutrients for the mother. No woo required.
I’m a vegan who smokes weed and I think that’s the extent of my woo (though Ron Swanson would certainly disagree, I’m very often struck by how much woo German medical doctors are allowed to push).
I’d want to do it, partly because the large quantity of bioavailable iron calls to me, but also because of the oxytocin and potential bonding effects (if it doesn’t have any, it doesn’t have any: no harm done). I don’t think I want it enough to really push back against a doctor/hospital that didn’t want to allow it, but I might look for one that is open to it.
I have a friend that became one of those people after high school. She made a killing for a few years from whacky people who wanted her to make the placenta into Christmas ornaments… She tried showing me photos of her stretching it over glass balls but I couldn’t stomach it.
…this is why mom animals in nature just eat the placenta and get it over with or something. I saw it on discovery channel
Well they don’t eat it to get it off of the baby. While I’m not a vet or a zoologist, my understanding is they eat it for the nutrients as well as to help remove the scent, and newborn animals are easy prey and targeted by predators.
I personally wouldn’t recommend it, I’ve seen babies die miserable deaths of sepsis and it’s heartbreaking. But I’m not going into pediatrics or OBGYN so thankfully this isn’t gonna be a discussion I have to have.
I’m aiming for EM and I used to work at a level 1 peds ER. I have heard some astonishingly stupid things and fully expect to hear more.
To somewhat play devil’s advocate, what’s wrong with a minute? What benefit are you expecting from leaving it on longer?
The long and the short is Delayed Cord Clamping is really the only thing we have data for, and that’s what we should do without evidence something else is better.
I have no evidence, just a general thought that there are millions of years of evolution behind the umbilical cord staying intact for longer than a minute after birth. Some people want to leave it on for a week, why? Maybe that’s a useful instinct.
It probably wouldn’t make any difference in the appearance of the belly button, because eventually it work dry up and fall off, just like if you were to clamp and cut it. There are definite benefits to delaying the clamping of the cord. There is a lot of blood in the cord and placenta that is lost that could be auto transfused to the baby if the cord is left intact.
The main problem with leaving the cord and placenta intact is that there is a risk for infection or blood loss. Also it would look really gross in the baby pictures.
The real question to me is what happens with animals in the wild?
Nature videos exist and in my area you can go to the county fair and watch cows be born….
Thanks that’s very helpful. Especially the part about county fairs—can’t get much more “in the wild” than that!
Just gnaw it off
“Oh my God what is that?!”
“It’s my umbilical cord…”
“They never removed it when you were born?”
“It’s just taped on… It’s uh… Just for fun.”
