Been catching up on Call the Midwife.

[conuly]

You know, back when the nieces were itsy bitsy I spent a lot of time at The Babywearer Forums, and then when they were in middle school I spent a lot of time at the homeschool forum, two rather crunchy places.

And something that comes up in rather crunchy places where many people have young children and are expecting another is... well, everything, but the relevant thing here is the umbilical cord, namely, when to clamp it. You may have never given this much thought in your life, and probably don't have an opinion, but if you did have an opinion it would likely be "delayed clamping". Something about anemia? If you have no opinion you'll happily let the hospital decide, of course, and the very use of the term "delayed" here suggests that they probably won't do that.

Consequently, after all the discussion of this I read, every time I see a Call the Midwife birth I'm left with the uneasy sensation that they cut the cord really early... even though, of course, they're well within modern day hospital norms and (I assume) the period-appropriate norms as well.

Comments

[8hyenas]

I am, as an adult who will never have children, still very bitter that I have no stored umbilical stems cells, and that I was an induced C-section.


(Ridiculous. Not actually bitter. Bitter in the same way I am about how I think one of my toes is more crumpled than the other and is that a genetic defect from my mother refusing to stop drinking Dr. Pepper?)

This is just to say, that some how, opinions on umbilical cords can be formed even by people (me) who assiduously avoid all mentions of birth, pregnancy, and the biological processes of reproduction.