The Neurological Damage Caused by Immediate Umbilical Cord Clamping Is Irreversible

Retired obstetrician George M. Morley has been sounding the alarm for years on a dangerous but commonplace childbirth practice that is advocated by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG). Unfortunately, so far nobody has listened.

(PRWEB) January 14, 2002

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Neurological Damage Caused by Immediate Umbilical Cord Clamping Is Irreversible

SCHAUMBURG, IL/ Jan. 12/ - Retired obstetrician George M. Morley has been sounding the alarm for years on a dangerous but commonplace childbirth practice that is advocated by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG). Unfortunately, so far nobody has listened. It may be hard to believe, but the simple act of immediately clamping a newborn infant’s umbilical cord following birth may cause irreversible brain damage, he warns.

Dr. Morley explains why immediate clamping, especially before the child has taken its first breath, may cause very obvious brain damage resulting in death or cerebral palsy, or a brain injury so mild that behavioral and learning defects only become apparent years later in elementary school.

It is well known that lack of oxygen causes permanent neurological damage. Immediate cord clamping destroys two mechanisms that normally keep the newborn brain supplied with oxygen:

1. It totally cuts off the infant brain’s oxygen supply from the placenta before its lungs begin to function and take over that task.

2. It stops placental transfusion - the transfer of a large volume of blood (up to 50% increase in total blood supply) that is used mainly to establish circulation through the child’s lungs to start them functioning and supplying the brain with oxygen.

Immediate cord clamping is advocated by ACOG to obtain blood samples for medico-legal documentation and to hasten transfer of some babies to a resuscitation table. However, the blood samples taken are not used for the welfare of the child, and any required resuscitation is safer and more effective when done while the cord and placenta are supplying the child with oxygenated blood.

Despite the publications of Dr. Morley and many other authors detailing the injuries caused by immediate clamping, ACOG has neither refuted the dangers of the practice nor supplied patients with an informed consent statement for the procedure. Immediate cord clamping continues to be practiced widely without any warnings or medical justification.

With rates of behavioral and developmental disorders in children skyrocketing (e.g., autism, ADHD, etc.), and little progress being made in the prevention of neurological defects, Dr. Morley concludes that the practice of immediate cord clamping, which has no proven benefit to the child and which is widely condemned in the literature, should be avoided except for rare circumstances such as the spontaneous rupture of the cord at birth.

For more information on this subject see Dr. Morley’s latest writing entitled “Lost Causes and Side Effects: The Neurological Damage Caused by Immediate Cord Clamping Is Irreversible” which is posted at http://www.mercola.com/2002/jan/2/umbilical_cord.htm

For additional information on cord clamping, see the articles posted at http://www.mercola.com/article/cord_clamping/index.htm

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