Newborn umbilical cord blood

[celeryeater]

Hi, please give me some advice! I only just gave birth to my daughter Tuesday night and this morning a midwife showed me how to wash her (I'm still in the hospital) she cleaned around the umbilical cord with some warm water and gauze. Just now i checked her nappy and there was a fair bit of dried blood around the cord. I called a midwife (a different one came) and she said this is normal and to just clean it again with some warm water and gauze which I did. I had to soak it to get the dried blood to come off so I'm not sure if it was that flowing about or if it was still bleeding but my little girl was screaming the house down! I've swaddled her now and shes calmed down but googling it now I'm not sure it should have been messed with this early, is this right? Super worried ftm please give me some advice x

They do look pretty crusty I'm afraid it's a bit grim! but will all have healed up in another week or so.
It's likely your little girl was screaming because she doesn't like being naked (it's a bit chilly compared to clothes!) or being washed.
As long as it's not inflamed it should be okay. The dried blood wil come off eventually, don't scrub too much.
You can always ask the midwife to check it again before you leave, and my midwives checked it in the home visits too.

Is infected when it smells bad, I wouldn't try too hard to clean around it too much as it could do more damage I think. My DD's still had little dry blood in her belly botton for a while after the cord fell as well so I think is common