why the rush to cut the cord?

[emmajlh]

i've been enjoying watching One born every minute and also watching the videos online.

does anyone know why midwives are sooooo keen to get that umbilical cord cut so quickly? why don't they wait till it has stopped pulsating? is it a case of the quicker they can get it cut and have mum and baby out the door and a free bed the better?

Having synto for 3rd stage and not cutting the cord first can lead to the baby becoming jaundiced.

I'd stipulated in my birth plan that I wanted the cord left until it had stopped pulsating and wanted a physiological third stage. Midwife was great and left me to feed my baby in the pool whilst he was still attached. After about half an hour I was staring to get a bit cold, so DP cut the cord. I so wished I'd made a nice colourful cotton tie rather than having the horrible white plastic clip. Then I got bored and asked for the syntometrin!

I too get angry at the TV! (I know, how sad!) But the midwives always seem to be rushed off their feet. I'm sure mum and baby don't have anywhere else to be so I wish they'd all slow down!

Smile - it was scary just before she was born - i.e. I'm about to have a baby and there's no-one here except us (and a random postman, and a gaggle of kids walking to school), what if she's not okay? But actually once she had arrived it was pretty amazing! We carried on to hospital but it certainly stood us in good stead for getting discharged quickly, that we had arrived with the baby already in our arms!