Skip to main content

What does the umbilical cord do?



The umbilical cord connects a baby in the womb to its mother. It runs from an opening in your baby’s stomach to the placenta in the womb. The average cord is about 50cm (20 inches) long.

What does the umbilical cord do?

In the placenta, oxygen and food from your bloodstream pass into your baby's bloodstream and are carrried to your baby along the umbilical cord.
Blood circulates through vessels in the cord, which consists of:
  • one vein that carries blood rich in oxygen and nutrients from you to your baby
  • two arteries that return deoxygenated blood and waste products, such as carbon dioxide, from your baby back to the placenta
These blood vessels are enclosed and protected by a sticky substance called Wharton’s jelly, which itself is covered by a layer of membrane called the amnion.
Towards the end of your pregnancy, the placenta passes antibodies through the umbilical cord from you to your baby, giving it immunity from infections for about three months after birth. However, it only passes on antibodies that you already have.

What happens after the baby is born?

Soon after the birth, the midwife will:
  • clamp the umbilical cord about 3-4cm (1½-2 inches) from your baby’s belly button with a plastic clip
  • place another clamp at the other end of the cord, near the placenta
The cord will then be cut between the two clamps, leaving a stump about 2-3cm (1-1½ inches) long on your baby’s belly button. Your midwife will cut the cord or, with their agreement, you or your birth partner could do it.
There are no nerves in the cord, so cutting it isn’t painful for you or the baby. You can ask to have your baby lifted straight onto you before the cord is cut.
Between 5 and 15 days after your baby is born, the umbilical stump will dry out, turn black and drop off. After the stump comes off, it usually takes about 7-10 days for the belly button to heal completely.
Until the stump drops off and the belly button is completely healed, it’s important to keep the area clean and dry, to prevent infection.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"Hard nipples" - areola or nipple skin

Someone once wrote"... when i get really cold, or get goosebumbs all over my body, the whole things really scrunch up, like, my entire areola scrunches itself up into a wrinkled little mound. it looks really weird and ugly, and i haven't ever seen other people's breasts do it. what is wrong with my areola/nipples??" The answer: Well nothing is wrong. This is what my areola does too. It's a normal reaction to the coldness or to irritation / stimulation. The little muscles in the areola do a similar goosebump thing as your other skin can do. People often call this phenomenon "hard nipples". Also note that skin on areola has less feeling or sensation to it than other areas of your body. If the areola was very sensitive, then breastfeeding would probably be quite uncomfortable because the baby pulls and tugs it! The nipples are sensitive but the sensitivity changes with hormonal changes, such as occur at mestrual cycle or pregnancy. Also this v...
8 comments
Read more

Ground breaking cancer Carctol Capsule in India with Dr.Vipin Tiwari

Sharing is caring and also very important to keep up with what’s happening in the world. Cancer news we see everyday! This is something I am very very excited about : Changing the future and also saving lives. Sound too good to be true well it’s not the research that has gone into this product is brilliant. Please check out Dr.Vipin Tiwari he is working in India. I was really happy he contacted me to share this product. So I want to share it also with you all. The mission: MISSION "Our mission is to offer products as well as services of the highest professional standards in order to make the whole world Cancer Free." The people at Dr. Nandlal Tiwari Pharmaceuticals Pvt. Ltd. are focused on researching the power of ayurveda, bring up natural medicines & therapies and spread it all over the world for the benfit of mankind. We work hard to bring smiles on hopeless patients of Cancer. With successful records in past and dedication of our employees we are con...
2 comments
Read more

Loosing a parent!

When a Parent Dies: Dealing with the Loss of Your Mother or Father By David Kessler This is spot on. I guess until you go through this you will never know.  #parents #love #grief #davidkessler #survivor #iamstillawoman  When a parent of an adult dies, there is almost an unspoken expectation that it will not hit you head on. An adult is expected to accept death as a part of life, to handle all sudden losses in an appropriate adult manner. But really, what does that mean? That you should not be sad? That you should be so grateful they didn’t die when you were a child that you don’t need to mourn your parent? The above considerations demonstrate an under-estimation of grief. Grief is the reflection of the connection that has been lost. That loss does not diminish because you are an adult or because your mother or father lived a long life. Our society places enormous pressure on us to get over loss, to get through the grief. But how long do you grieve for the man who...
Post a Comment
Read more