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Midwife Wins Decade Long Battle To Give Mums More Time With Baby Before Umbilical Cord Is Cut

Amanda Burleigh has campaigned for 10 years to give mums the right to be attached to their newborn baby for longer

Traditionally, the umbilical cord is cut just seconds after a woman gives birth. But a battle won by campaigning midwife Amanda Burleigh has changed how quickly a mum is physically separated from her newborn baby.

Burleigh has been fighting for years to let mum and baby be attached via the umbilical cord for longer after birth, as she believes that it’s unnatural to cut the cord when still filled with blood from the mum’s placenta.

Amanda Burleigh has masterminded a global campaign to delay the cutting of babies umbilical cords [SWNS]
Amanda Burleigh has masterminded a global campaign to delay the cutting of babies umbilical cords [SWNS]

“One day I had a brainwave and thought, ‘We all clamp the cord within seconds of the baby being born, but we are doing it without any evidence about whether it’s good or bad for the baby’,” Burleigh, a midwife at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, said.

Since then, she’s worked with other medical professionals to collect data on how stopping the blood flow through the umbilical cord so quickly could harm a baby.

Research from one study found that clamping the cord immediately after birth could starve a baby of a third of its blood – raising the risk of anaemia. Other research shows that there’s some evidence that cutting the cord so early on can be harmful for premature babies.

But after years of hard work, Burleigh and her team have managed to get the National Institude for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) to change its guidelines to instruct doctors and midwives to delay cutting the cord for at least one minute.

The new guidelines allow mums and babies to stay physically connected for as long as the mum wants [Rex]
The new guidelines allow mums and babies to stay physically connected for as long as the mum wants [Rex]

The revised guidelines state that the cord should be clamped within five minutes, but the mum has the right to request it’s left longer – giving her a chance to enjoy the physical connection with her newborn child.

“There was quite a lot of resistance from both doctors and midwives,” Burleigh said about her campaign. “At times, I felt like a whistleblower.”

But despite the resistance she faced, she admitted to feeling a ‘moral duty’ to challenge the immediate cord clamping.

Do you think women should have the right to choose how long they're 'attached' to their baby for? Let us know in the comments.

[Premature Baby Born Inside His Own Amniotic Sac Astounds Doctors]

[Photo Frames Made Of Placenta: New Mothers Can Buy Frames Made Of Dried And Crushed Pieces]