Help me understand cord ph

[Satstar]

Hi

Could anyone help me understand cord PH levels at delivery?

I have googled but can't find anything that gives me a basic understanding of it. Everything seems far too complex for my brain to currently digest!

Ok so really simply: your blood has a pH level that shows the acidity of your blood. This acid level is affected by loads of different things but in birth it is a good indicator of if a baby has been compromised (blood becoming more acidic due to it needing to compensate for lack of oxygen etc) and for how long.

You look at 2 numbers: the pH, so like 7.3, and the ‘base excess’ which in simple terms tells you how long the baby has been compensating. So a baby with a pH of 7.20 but a base excess of -2 has had a sudden acute event they’ve had to compensate for, whereas a baby with a pH of 7.25 but a base excess of -10 has been compensating for a lot longer.

The worst I’ve ever seen was a baby with base excess -15.

If you think about what happens when you don’t get oxygen to your muscles, lactic acid builds up. So if a baby gets less oxygen, acid builds up. (So if the placenta starts detaching or the cord is being compressed).

Does that make sense?