Woeful state of medical research in Australia

disallowed/national/baby-s-first-br...study-strikes-right-cord-20180524-p4zha9.html

“We think that being attached to the placenta, which continues to provide oxygen and blood to the baby, contributes to the stability of the baby in the first couple of minutes.” (Talk about stating the bleedin’ obvious).

“Evidence of the benefits of delayed clamping has been growing in recent years. Last year researchers at the University of Sydney found that waiting just 60 seconds before cutting the cord could drastically improve a premature baby's chances of  surviving, saving an extraordinary 100 lives for every 1000 pre-term babies born.”

So having been professionally killing 10% of pre-term babies through medical malpractice for decades, if not over a century, they now have the gall to claim that not cutting the cord until the baby is breathing by itself as a medical breakthrough? Parents have had to fight tooth and nail all that time to prevent professional doctors and midwifes from cutting the cord as soon as the baby emerges. To prevent the “experts” from putting their babies at risk.

It goes back quite a way. “Textbook for Midwives” by M.F. Myles, 3rd ed. 1958 p.310 states that the cord should be tied without delay to reduce the risk of jaundice. But then, three pages later she advocates chemically burning (her words) the neonatal’s eyes to prevent conjunctivitis. The rot was firmly established in the 1950s.

An 1879 textbook, however, makes very little reference to the cord, saying that the cord may be tied after the child is crying lustily, and that during a breech presentation, for as long as the chord pulsates, there is no danger to the child (a principal danger in a breech birth is the cord being compressed, cutting off the oxygen to the baby).

In other words, common sense. The pulsating cord has been providing oxygen to the baby for seven months or so, cutting that before the baby is breathing naturally requires no discussion, and if the child dies (as ten percent of pre-terms did) is basically manslaughter.

I’m sure that we’ll soon be hearing other astounding medical breakthroughs from this hub of exciting new medical concepts. Like:

Speeding up a perfectly natural progression of labour by artificially breaking the waters is a bad idea. And;

Epidural anaesthetics in the last minute of the second stage is unnecessary as it leads to greater haemorrhages.

And maybe even that an iatrogenic fever in the mother is not a reason to put a newborn on a 36 hour course of antibiotics. Who knows what gems they will come up with next.