Comments please! You do not need to be a midwife to comment, just someone who knows what the local practices are for babies born outside of a facility. If you would prefer to email, send your response to trainmidwives_savelives@yahoo.com .
I am interested in gathering data regarding practices around severing the baby’s umbilical cord. I would like to have a sampling of what the practice is from as many locales as possible. In particular, I’m interested in your answers to the following questions:
At what point after a normal birth is the cord severed? (immediately, after ____ minutes, or after _______ has occurred, etc.)
What is the method of severing the cord?
How is the umbilical stump cared for afterward?
I will start the comment thread. Homebirth in the USA, cords are cut anywhere from a few minutes after birth to a few hours after birth. Most of the time, cords are clamped with hemostats and cut with scissors. Some midwives burn the cords, but that is fairly uncommon.