The placenta is an organ that your body grows for the baby to use. It grows on your uterus on the inside, and has a blood supply that is for the baby alone. The side that is to the mother is considered the meaty side, and the 'shiny' side is to the baby. This is where the baby lives for the 9 months. The placenta is commonly called the "after birth". This blood rich organ is about 9-11 inches across, and 1-2 inches thick. It sort of looks and feels like a piece of liver. Attached to the placenta inside is the umbilical cord, and the other end of course is attached to your baby. The placenta attaches itself to the inside of your uterus. This is where it is nourished from your body. It is very rich in blood. This means it has a lot of blood all around it and inside of it. The area where the cord is attached to the baby later becomes the belly button.
The placenta has many jobs. It sends oxygen to your baby, it sends nourishment to your baby. It removes waste products from your baby. It acts as a gland that produces hormones (these are what helps to cause mood swings in pregnancy). There are two arteries in the cord, and one vein. The vein is the largest one, and carries oxygen rich blood and nutrients to the baby. The other two are arteries and carry waste products from the baby to the placenta. The umbilical cord is filled with a jelly like stuff called whortons gelly. This helps to protect the blood vein and the arteries. When the baby is born , this stuff kind of swells which stops the exchange of blood. When that happens the cord has begun to stop pulsating . Once the cord has completely stopped pulsating, it is clamped and cut. To apply the clamp prior to this process will deprive your baby form blood rich oxygen that is still being sent from the placenta to the baby. When this process has stopped, then two clamps (a cord clamp and a instrument type of clamp) is applied and the cord is cut between the two. This cutting of the cord does not hurt the baby, as there are no attached nerves in the cord to the baby. Now the baby is no longer attached to the mother.
The following are established facts regarding umbilical cord clamping before pulmonary oxygenation is established:
• Placental oxygenation is arrested and the brain is deprived of oxygen until the lungs function.
• Placental transfusion is arrested and the child is hypobolemic.
• Blood flow through the lungs and other organs is not optimal and pulmonary oxygenation is not optimal.
• The child's life support systems are not optimal for survival or for optimum health.
Two patterns of perinatal brain damage and their conditions of occurrence (Myers RE. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology 1972; 112: 246-276.)
Cord Closure; Can Hasty Clamping Injure the Newborn? -By George Malcolm Morley, MB, ChB, FACOG, July 1998, OBG Management.
Early clamping of the Umbilical Cord; Cutting the Ties That Bind-By Cory Mermer, Townsend Letter for Doctors and patients.
Lost Causes and Side Effects; The Neurological Damage Caused by Immediate Cord Clamping is Irreversible By George malcolm Morley, MB, ChB, FACOG
Cerebral Palsy and Cord Blood Gases by Dr. George malcolm Morley- A letter to the Editor of the British medical Journal
A Randomized Controlled Trial of Delayed Cord Clamping in Very Low Birth Weight Preterm Infants (Eur J Pediatr 2000 Oct; 159 (10): 775-7)
Delayed Clamping of the Umbilical Cord Improves Hematologic Status of Guatemalan Infants at 2 Months of Age (Am J Clin Nutr 1997 Feb;65(2):425-31)
PLACENTA:
You can save your placenta if you wish, freeze it and have it sent off to be stored for anything future medically. If you want to there are places that will allow you to ship your placenta to them for study purposes, and also in Michigan there is a spot that they use the placenta to train dogs to find people and or missing children or bodies if they have been killed. If you are interested in any of these type in the word placenta in your search...
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