Can I have 'delayed cord clamping' and harvest cord blood for banking?
Ask any cord blood banker and they will say yes.
BUT
what does this mean?
It comes down to definition of 'delayed'. Researchers will consider anywhere between 30 seconds and 3 minutes as delayed.
Most parents think of delayed cord clamping as MUCH longer than this. Usually they mean 'until the cord stops pulsing' (though what does that mean?), and definitely after the placenta is birthed. This is why it is imperative to specify in your Birth Map exactly what you expect with the cord management. To simply state 'delayed cord clamping' could mean just 30 seconds.
So what do cord bankers define as delayed?
NOT MORE THAN 1 MINUTE.
So if your definition of 'delayed' is more than one minute, the answer to the question is NO> you can not have delayed cord clamping and cord blood collection.
(read about the Language of Birth Plans in this excerpt from The Book)
So the next questions you need to consider:
Is 1 minute delayed enough?
what gains are made from banking the cord blood?
What gains are made by allowing all the blood to go to the baby at birth?
Why do you want to store the cord blood?
What alternatives are there to gathering stem cells?
The following articles may help answer some of these questions.
BUT
what does this mean?
It comes down to definition of 'delayed'. Researchers will consider anywhere between 30 seconds and 3 minutes as delayed.
Most parents think of delayed cord clamping as MUCH longer than this. Usually they mean 'until the cord stops pulsing' (though what does that mean?), and definitely after the placenta is birthed. This is why it is imperative to specify in your Birth Map exactly what you expect with the cord management. To simply state 'delayed cord clamping' could mean just 30 seconds.
So what do cord bankers define as delayed?
NOT MORE THAN 1 MINUTE.
So if your definition of 'delayed' is more than one minute, the answer to the question is NO> you can not have delayed cord clamping and cord blood collection.
(read about the Language of Birth Plans in this excerpt from The Book)
So the next questions you need to consider:
Is 1 minute delayed enough?
what gains are made from banking the cord blood?
What gains are made by allowing all the blood to go to the baby at birth?
Why do you want to store the cord blood?
What alternatives are there to gathering stem cells?
The following articles may help answer some of these questions.
http://www.bellybelly.com.au/birth/delayed-cord-clamping/
https://midwifethinking.com/2015/09/16/cord-blood-collection-confessions-of-a-vampire-midwife/
Committee Opinion No. 648 Summary: Umbilical Cord Blood Banking.
[No authors listed] Obstet Gynecol. 2015.
Abstract
Once considered a waste product that was discarded with the placenta, umbilical cord blood is now known to contain potentially life-saving hematopoietic stem cells. When used in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, umbilical cord blood offers several distinct advantages over bone marrow or peripheral stem cells. However, umbilical cord blood collection is not part of routine obstetric care and is not medically indicated. Umbilical cord blood collection should not compromise obstetric or neonatal care or alter routine practice for the timing of umbilical cord clamping. If a patient requests information on umbilical cord blood banking, balanced and accurate information regarding the advantages and disadvantages of public and private umbilical cord blood banking should be provided. The routine storage of umbilical cord blood as "biologic insurance" against future disease is not recommended.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/26595578/