Hilary's Desk

The function of the placenta is an overlooked non-thought, because the medical system considers it redundant the minute a baby's head makes an appearance.  Don't you think that strange, given that for nearly nine months, the placenta has provided nutrients, oxygen and... stem cells to the baby?  This magnificent organ provides an amazing service, which is utterly abused, particularly when it comes to ... multipotent and lineage-committed stem cells.  That the placenta contains stem cells should present no surprises to anyone.  After all, where do the medical profession think stem cells come from? Thin air?  Perhaps they "just appear" and are unique to, a developing embryo?  Nope.  Cord blood from the placenta, has been described as the baby's first natural stem cell transplant. Which is why anyone who understands placental physiology would never clamp a cord. So why do they? And we also also know that one of the consequences of immediate cord cutting, is brain ischaemia, which can cause brain damage for life.  Read Full Blog

Long time readers here will know that immediate cord-clamping is something which makes me angry enough to write lots of blogs on it.  In the latest BMJ, a retired consultant obstetrician, in a column called Personal View calls for the practice to be stopped.  Why does an obstetrician have to be retired before saying the blindingly obvious?  It’s utterly insane that the “lay” community is and has always been, way ahead of the eight ball when it comes to cord clamping. And they were way ahead when it came to routine episiotomy too. I’m sure that the obstetricians only re-looked at the "science" of episiotomy, when the vocal, radical antsy mothers of the 60’s to the 80’s told them where to stick their automatic scissors and lucrative intervention bonuses up their own posterior!!! That there had to be some research done to justify getting rid of episiotomies, was another tragic waste of money, just as more research on leaving the cord alone will be an utter waste of money.  Except to the lucky person in dibs for another 10 years of secure income.

On October 26th, I talked about the practice of immediate cord-clamping.  Read Full Blog

In his book, "How Doctor's Think", Dr Jerome Groopman describes an ultrasound doctor, who detects in a baby, inside a woman 5 weeks from giving birth, a strange shaped space inside the baby's brain which should look like a tear-drop with sharp edges, but just doesn't look quite right.  Not badly wrong, but just not quite right. Because the shape is pretty near normal, she almost doesn't tell the mother.  Two things change her mind. She wants to protect any obstetrician from being charged with causing damage to a baby, should it turn into something significant... and she also thinks parents should know in advance in case they need to consider the realities of bringing up a damaged child. The mother has an MRI, and a brain haemorrhage in the baby is discovered, so the birth is attended by paediatric neurologists.  Read Full Blog

You don't think you need to know?  Well, according to Dr Jerome Groopman, you do.  Dr Groopman belongs to a rare species in medicine who tell it as it is - perhaps because he's been at the butt end of a few medical bum deals in his day. He knows what it feels like to be run over by his own medical system, and has the clout to write about it.  His writing is vitally important, and utterly frustrating in the same breath.  It's vitally important, because everyone who ever walks into a doctor's surgery needs to read this book, but most never will. It's frustrating, because  Groopman misses a very important issue - which is what the next blog will be about. But first, the book itself. Read Full Blog

Mannnnny years ago (1984 - 86), I wrote an article on obstetricians dogmas on cord cutting in hospital ,which landed up in various incarnations in several journals worldwide, finally landing up in Mothering Magazine.  The thrust of this article was that obstetricians had their heads firmly located in the pavement, and that babies of any age, and condition are not born with a scissor deficiency and do not need their cords immediately clamped and cut.  Can you imagine any other mammalian species, like cats, dogs or sheep, frantically asking their peers for a cord clamp and scissors? Wouldn't you think it would occur to medical people that our bodies might have been designed correctly, to do a job efficiently and correctly?  Wouldn't you think they'd wonder what might go wrong if they "interfere"?  Of course not.  But then, I also know mothers who believe that if a clamp isn't used, all the blood will leak back out of their baby, who will then die.  Sigh.  Today, a group of fossilised medical non-thinkers, enraptured their world with the news that delaying cord clamping for babies born before 28 weeks is a good thing.  Perhaps they will get the Nobel Price for this priceless discovery?  Interestingly, they have no questions or shame about their "findings".  Indeed, they say they don't even understand the "mechanism" [choke], when it's blindingly obvious.  By their enthusiasm, you'd think they were telling the world about a new, previously un-thought-of miracle!  But note this... before they implement this, they will require many more multicenter studies to be done....!!!! - kaching.... which might take how long???? : Read Full Blog

Just when you think sanity might prevail, and you write a blog about one doctor with a brain, everything implodes. I decided to do a pubmed search, just to double check when stem cells were first found in cord blood. The answer to that is around 2000 if you count the lag to publish. Then I did a check on third stage cord clamping management, and came across this 2010 article, which exemplifies everything I dislike about obstetric practice in 2010. Read Full Blog

Hurrah, a doctor finally sees the blindingly obvious! In a study entitled “Wait to clamp umbilical cord, study says” Paul R. Sanberg from South Florida College of Medicine, is the first person I know of, who has finally published what I’ve been saying for years. Which equates to “Don't clamp the newborn’s umbilical cord!” His reason is that cord blood gives the baby its first infusion of stem cells which could help regenerate any underdeveloped organs.  And do a whole heap of other things too.  I’m glad he said that. But here’s my problem. Why didn’t all these medical people who have called cord blood “medical waste” and set up cord banks specifically to save those stem cells, see that? Isn’t it somewhat blindingly obvious? My first published article on delaying cord clamping was in the New Zealand Home Birth Magazine which was then reproduced in the New Zealand Association of Midwives Newsletter. An American magazine called “Mothering” published it in 1986. 24 years ago. My second “rant” on this topic was last year, as part of a talk. Read Full Blog