Umbilical cord formation methods
Applying a clothespin to prevent bleeding
In the maternity hospital, a newborn’s navel is tied in one of three ways:
- cutting off the umbilical cord with a blade followed by healing of the umbilical wound;
- using a clothespin to prevent blood supply to the appendix;
- tying a knot.
Surgical excision of the appendix is practiced extremely rarely, which is associated with possible consequences. There are doctors who are confident that surgical excision leads to better healing, but other doctors do not agree with this opinion.
The method of shaping the navel does not in any way affect the resulting shape in the future. However, surgical excision is practiced less and less, as it is associated with high morbidity and risk of infection.
Treatment of a newborn's navel at home
- First, wash your hands with soap;
- Using a pipette, drop a couple of drops of hydrogen peroxide onto the umbilical wound and wait until it stops foaming;
- Use a cotton swab or cotton pad to remove the remaining peroxide along with the crusts;
- Lubricate the navel with a solution of brilliant green or potassium permanganate.
In order for the navel to heal better, you need to provide air access to it. Do not try to remove all the crusts at once; you will remove them gradually. The edge of the diaper should not come into contact with the healing wound, so you need to either buy special diapers with cutouts for the navel or fold the edge of the diaper. You can bathe your child while the umbilical wound is healing, but you will need to treat the navel after bathing, do not add potassium permanganate to the water, as it dries out the skin greatly, and use boiled water.
Within 10-14 days, the umbilical wound heals and becomes dry
Umbilical cord tying method
Cutting the umbilical cord with scissors occurs after fixation with threads or a clothespin
Compared to the use of clothespins to form the navel, the ligation method also looks outdated, as it requires a certain skill. In general, these methods are similar, but when bandaging the doctor performs more actions:
- Ligation is carried out when the umbilical cord stops pulsating. It is wrapped with two threads: the first is tied 2 cm above the skin of the abdomen, and the second - 15 cm from the first.
- It is very important to sanitize the scissors when performing circumcision to avoid infection. Immediately after using antiseptic solutions, cut the umbilical cord between the threads closer to the one located above the abdomen.
After this, the umbilical cord is left alone; with proper care, after a while it falls off.
When using a clothespin, the navel is not tied in two places; the area is simply secured with a clip. But this method has one drawback - caring for the wound becomes somewhat more difficult. Parents should understand this point and pay more attention to the untreated area.
Features of navel treatment
Disinfection of the navel with a cotton swab after treatment with hydrogen peroxide
In order for the navel to be beautiful and not lose its shape, it is important to properly care for it. This will prevent the development of infection and serious pathologies of internal organs. The first actions to prevent suppuration and deterioration of the umbilical zone are carried out by the staff in the maternity hospital. Care then transfers to the parents when mother and baby are discharged. Various antiseptic agents are used for care. The general procedure for treating the navel looks like this:
- For disinfection, iodine and brilliant green are used in the first days. They are applied while the baby is in the maternity hospital. When the mother returns home, additional medications and treatments can be used.
- Before applying the medicine, the child is bathed, but at first this procedure should not take too much time - prolonged contact with water is undesirable. Baths with a weak solution of potassium permanganate will help improve disinfection.
- Immediately after bathing, after drying the baby’s body, hydrogen peroxide is instilled into the wound. Then clean the navel with a cotton swab.
- To prevent the inflammatory process, brilliant green is applied again. To speed up healing, you can then apply chlorophyllipt or completely replace the brilliant green with it. This substance has a powerful antibacterial effect.
There are other medications that can help speed up wound healing. Parents should also remember that turning the baby onto his stomach is not recommended until the navel is completely healed.
Sometimes pathologies with a wound occur, since it is impossible to avoid all problems. But knowing about them will help prevent most of the difficulties. Suppuration of the wound occurs most often:
- due to insufficient oxygen access to the skin;
- due to poor hygiene;
- due to infection;
- due to the large size of the navel.
If you constantly treat the navel incorrectly, this can lead to the formation of an inflammatory process. It is quite simple to recognize: pus, swelling, and redness appear. The baby is constantly nervous and crying.
Do not cover the wound with a bandage, wrap the baby’s tummy with a bandage, or otherwise impede blood circulation and oxygen supply. It is also not recommended to treat the navel more than 2 times a day. Excessive activity towards the umbilical cord on the part of parents sometimes leads to unpleasant consequences.
How to speed up the healing process?
To speed up the healing process, you need to organize proper care. There are several rules on how to do this in practice:
- After birth, the umbilical cord section is first treated with peroxide, and then with potassium permanganate or iodine. In this way, disinfection occurs and formed blood clots are eliminated. Although it is believed that if the process occurred after the umbilical cord stopped pulsating, then infection is unlikely. But there is a small risk, so treatment is necessary.
- Until the remnants of the umbilical cord are completely gone, you should treat the navel twice a day. Hydrogen peroxide, brilliant green, chlorophyllipt and a weak solution of potassium permanganate are suitable for processing.
- You should not wrap your baby up. It is necessary to ensure access of oxygen to the wound. Oxygen baths in combination with treatment promote rapid healing.
- Don't rub the umbilical cord. You should use diapers that have a special cutout, or roll up the edges.
- In the first days after discharge, the baby should be bathed only in boiled water.
The main rule is respect and careful care. The umbilical wound heals completely by the end of the first month of the child’s life. Its timely healing indicates that everything is in order.
Using the recommendations given in the article, you can easily avoid problems associated with improper care of the umbilical wound of a newborn and speed up the healing process. If necessary or in doubt, consult an experienced pediatrician. The final decision on the care of the baby is made by the parents, but it is worth remembering that his health comes first.
Can a belly button come undone?
A lingering umbilical cord is a scar that cannot be untied.
An umbilical cord that has fallen off and healed cannot be untied, although some adults are faced with the opinion that even after 20-30 years this is possible with constant constipation and the formation of a hernia. However, the belly button is a scar, and they cannot untie.
The only consequence that a newborn baby may face is the umbilical cord not being connected properly when using the thread tying method. An untied navel leads to bleeding. Therefore, it is best to ensure that the midwife ties the umbilical cord correctly, using quality silk thread and a sea knot.
To prevent this from happening when using a clothespin, you should not constantly move it and watch how the umbilical area heals.
How the navel was tied before
The study of different nationalities, as well as the techniques of old medicine, allows us to conclude that in most cases the navel was left as it is. Only a few doctors between the 12th and 15th to the 19th centuries used primitive surgical instruments to cut the umbilical cord.
Some tribes still practice self-gnawing of the umbilical cord by the mother in labor. Moreover, further disinfection is not applied in any way.
Past practice makes it clear that the navels were not given any special attention. At the same time, they turned out normal, there was no “wrongly” tied umbilical cord.
Incorrectly tied navel
Umbilical hernia
Some parents believe that an improperly tied belly button protrudes outward over time. But in reality there is no such term as abnormal umbilical cord formation. Protrusion is associated only with an umbilical hernia, which either goes away on its own by 3-5 years or requires medical treatment.
In any case, if you suspect the development of pathologies in the umbilical ring area, you should consult a doctor. The baby will be tested, palpated, and given an ultrasound to determine the condition of the inner wall of the peritoneum and cavity.
It happens that a bulging navel lasts for life. This also cannot be considered an indicator of pathology, only a cosmetic defect. You can get rid of it using plastic surgery methods and nothing else.
In maternity hospitals, several methods of tying the umbilical cord in newborns are used. However, they cannot influence the final shape of the navel. If an adult or child's belly button is constantly protruding, you first need to make sure that it is not a hernia.
How is the umbilical cord cut?
So, the most exciting and at the same time frightening moment in your life is coming soon. For nine whole months you have been preparing to meet the main person in your life - your baby.
When he is first born, his first minutes of life will be connected to his mother’s womb by the umbilical cord. And until the umbilical cord is cut, it will continue to ensure the exchange of blood between the child and you.
Today, the site for mothers supermams.ru will tell you in detail about when and how to properly cut the umbilical cord of a newborn.
The importance of correct umbilical cord cutting
During the Soviet era, the question of how to give birth was not even raised. It happened the same way for everyone: hospital, delivery room, lying down position.
The only difference was whether you give birth yourself or undergo surgery. In those years, the question of how to cut a child’s umbilical cord was not even discussed with future parents: the child was born, and the umbilical cord was immediately cut off.
It has now been scientifically proven that this stage of childbirth is no less important than, for example, contractions, because the future health of the child depends on how the umbilical cord is cut. When he is first born, the umbilical cord continues to pulsate, and the placenta still supplies his body with oxygen and essential nutrients.
Thanks to the umbilical cord, the child receives iron-rich blood, and he will not be at risk of anemia in the future. When the doctor clamps the umbilical cord, the baby suddenly stops receiving oxygen.
The baby has not yet learned to breathe on his own; he begins to choke and, in the fight for his life, takes a sharp breath.
From the first breath the newborn experiences severe pain, and this causes him to scream loudly. Hearing the first cry, the doctors and mommy rejoice – he’s alive! And the baby, it turns out, is experiencing extreme stress at this moment.
How to properly cut the umbilical cord after childbirth
Times have changed and many maternity hospitals have begun to adhere to the practice of not rushing to cut the umbilical cord, but to wait for the end of its pulsation.
What does this give? A lot for both a newborn and a young mother, says supermams.ru.
If the baby is placed on the mother’s chest immediately after birth, an ideal condition is created for him to take his first breath. For some time he will be on double breathing: receiving oxygen from the umbilical cord and gradually learning to breathe through his nose. It is this kind of birth that is considered the softest and most natural.
While the umbilical cord is pulsating, mother and child remain connected to each other, and such unity lasts on average up to half an hour. This time is quite enough for a healthy child to start breathing on his own.
How to cut the umbilical cord in the maternity hospital
In order to cut the umbilical cord, the midwife will not have to give the newborn painkillers.
Firstly, there are no nerve endings in the umbilical cord, and secondly, if the baby lies on his mother’s stomach and is attached to her chest, then from such an idyll his secretion of the hormone of joy (endorphin) increases, and, therefore, he will not be in pain.
As soon as the umbilical cord stops pulsating, the midwife clamps it with a clamp and cuts it off with a scalpel. The clamp remains in place for some time.
There are doctors in maternity hospitals who have a negative attitude towards delayed cutting of the umbilical cord because it takes a lot of time. But by saving minutes, doctors form a fear in a person’s subconscious that will guide him for the rest of his life.
Home birth: how to cut the umbilical cord
Childbirth taking place in a familiar and cozy home environment has recently become increasingly popular. Only healthy women whose pregnancy proceeds without complications can afford them.
But even if you have special training, childbirth should not take place without the presence of an experienced obstetrician who knows how to deliver a baby and how to cut a newborn's umbilical cord. In a home birth, the umbilical cord is cut several hours later, only after the newborn has been bathed and fed.
Some young parents, especially among adherents of ancient cultures, do not even want to hear about how to properly cut the umbilical cord - they prefer not to cut it at all.
This birth is called “lotus”; it has been practiced since ancient times among priests, and it was believed that children who go through it become spiritually more developed and have superpowers.
During a “lotus birth,” the umbilical cord is not cut; it dries out on its own after a few days. It happens like this: part of the umbilical cord is fixed with a special clothespin and left in this state until the umbilical tail falls off. You can bathe your child every day, but this must be done carefully so as not to wet the drying cord once again.
So, you understand that cutting the umbilical cord is divided into early and late, and the latter has many advantages. However, it is necessary to take into account the fact that if a mother and her baby have a mismatch of Rh factors, then the umbilical cord must be cut off immediately.
Childbirth is a sacrament and joy for any woman, so it is very important that at this moment there are friendly and competent people next to her. And then, having heard the baby’s first cry, you will fully feel the great happiness that he was finally born!
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