Beautiful Images Of Newborns With Their Lifeline

These images will have you staring at your screen for longer than you expected. Simply stunning!

We love everything birth and this image shared by Adelaide Obstetrician, Dr Karen Chandler, is beyond amazing.

She shared the photo from a recent delivery captioned, “for the experienced ones amongst us this cord is way longer than usual!!! In fact – the longest I’ve ever seen. I just kept walking and the cord kept coming. It was very funny. Mum was a third time mum so super relaxed and we were all in hysterics!!”

There is a growing body of evidence showing that there are a number of very significant advantages for the newborn baby if clamping of the umbilical cord is delayed for three minutes or more following delivery.

Delayed or deferred cord clamping (DCC) allows the baby to benefit from the continued supply of oxygenated blood from the placenta until spontaneous breathing is established which can be of particular importance in the preterm neonate. It has been shown that if respiration starts before the cord is clamped then the risk of bradycardia is reduced.

Following delivery, provided the umbilical cord is not clamped, there is a process of blood transfer from the placenta to the baby, known as placental transfusion.

Research has shown that during the three minutes immediately after birth this transfusion can account for over 30% of the newborn’s blood volume. If deprived of this volume the consequences can be critical, with hypovolaemia and reduced cardiac output which can be of particular importance in babies with compromised cardiorespiratory function.

Check out more beautiful images below

Shared on the Optimal Cord Clamping / #WaitforWhite Facebook page these pictures had us all gasping and feeling rather clucky. Dang those hormones!

Thank you Michelle A Ludwig. Beautiful baby. Beautiful birth. Strongest mama ever.

Posted by Optimal Cord Clamping / #WaitforWhite on Monday, April 11, 2016

Thank you Amanda Shields. This is a picture of my little one Erik on January 21,2015 after skin to skin contact, they cleaned him up and then clamped the cord. Look at the white!

Posted by Optimal Cord Clamping / #WaitforWhite on Monday, April 11, 2016

Thank you Kathleen Nohren. ❤️

Posted by Optimal Cord Clamping / #WaitforWhite on Monday, April 11, 2016

Beautiful photograph of lotus birthing of the placenta. The cord broke off by the placenta 3 days post birth and fell off completely at 7 days. Thank you Hannah Winbolt-Lewis and gorgeous Oren.

Posted by Optimal Cord Clamping / #WaitforWhite on Sunday, April 3, 2016

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Images via Optimal Cord Clamping FB

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46 Comments

- - meedee said
  - 31 May 2021
    10:26 am
The human body is seriously amazing.

- - mom81879 said
  - 31 Mar 2019
    2:50 pm
Gorgeous gorgeous photos. The babies are so clean in some pics, it looks they’ve been given a bath with the cord still attached. I just love these photos

- - rachel1970 said
  - 11 Jan 2019
    9:36 am
Oh wow, amazing shots

- - Ellen said
  - 09 Jan 2019
    9:26 am
Great shots !

- - MuthaNita said
  - 09 Jan 2019
    8:58 am
Fascinating, never realised there were benefits to delaying cord clamping but I’ll be looking into doing this with my next bub. Leaving the cord and placenta attached until they fall of has been warned against by doctors though, and I can see why. Leaving a decaying organ attached to a fragile newborn until it falls off doesn’t seem like a great idea to me.

- - mom265671 said
  - 09 Jan 2019
    1:54 am
Such beautiful photos

- - rnash02 said
  - 08 Jan 2019
    8:15 pm
Beautiful

- - mom101628 said
  - 09 Apr 2018
    10:48 pm
So lovely to hear that the cord and placenta are removed together these days. Once the baby was born in the old days, they often cut the cord and took the baby away and then dealt with the placenta. This resulted in my having hernias as they ripped the placenta from where it was attached and further complications down the tracks. So pleased that the medical profession has gone further these days.

- - june11 said
  - 03 Mar 2018
    3:39 pm
Does the option depend on the length of the cord. I know a Mum who had a short cord twice

- - nealsq said
  - 03 Mar 2017
    5:18 pm
the option wasn’t there for me, my placenta was calcifying before labour
- mom206279 replied
  
  25 May 2017 , 12:33 pm
  Yeah. Mine was ‘gritty’. Either way it was fairly gross and I was happy for them to take it away.
- - mom64356 said
  - 02 Sep 2016
    4:56 pm
I never had this option when I gave birth to my girls, I did look at the placenta after my daughters were born- it made me queasy though!

- - ella12 said
  - 25 Jul 2016
    3:56 pm
Ah, the miracle of birth. Magical.

- - rovermum said
  - 25 Jul 2016
    12:44 pm
My first thought was ew! It looks neater and more compact than I thought. But, I don’t feel the need to view this any longer…!

- - mom71495 said
  - 23 Jul 2016
    8:33 pm
Mothers birth procedure options are much better these day for choice unless you are scheduled for a C-section which can sometimes be unavoidable and best for baby and mum. Beautiful images.

- - mom172741 said
  - 23 Jul 2016
    6:00 pm
Gorgeous photos! Oh to have my time as a new mother again.

- - mom67623 said
  - 23 Jul 2016
    3:43 pm
I loved the pictures and you were right stayed longer than intended and glad progress of a positive nature for mother and child is becoming more advanced and bonding is important part of this

- - mom134803 said
  - 23 Jul 2016
    3:40 am
Amazing pictures !! Love it !

- - jodiev1980 said
  - 22 Jul 2016
    8:13 pm
The placenta is such a magical organ. These photos are amazing!

- - nealsq said
  - 21 Jul 2016
    8:36 pm
simply beautiful

- - mom70876 said
  - 21 Jul 2016
    7:46 pm
Fascinating photos. Having seen childbirth twice now, this is not something that you get to see.