Bridget's Pregnancy Blog

Today I’m going to talk about umbilical cords. Mainly because my baby has had quite a few problems involving his.

He has thus far succeeded in twisting his cord into a knot, which he subsequently untied before the next ultrasound. Then he managed to wrap his cord all the way around himself, including around his neck, which he also managed to get himself out of by the ultrasound after that one- four weeks later.Sometimes it feels like every time we go for another ultrasound the baby has done something new and potentially dangerous with his cord!

Because his cord has become quite the obsession with me, I’ve done a lot of research and written a few articles for various publications about umbilical cord problems. (I figure it’s a good way to simultaneously ease my own mind and help others.)

Some of the things I’ve learned are:

1 – Umbilical cord problems are fairly frequent, but mostly resolve themselves or end up not being too serious. My baby is an example of this, having worried us by getting himself so tangled up more than once but getting himself out of trouble all by himself. Even in cases where the baby doesn’t untangle himself, things like knots and having a cord tangled around the neck or body doesn’t seem to hurt the baby most of the time. As long as the cord doesn’t pull too tight, it’s flexible enough to handle some knotting and twisting.

2 – Umbilical cords are pretty tough. Most of the time people think of the fetus in there as being fragile, and in some ways they are. But the mom’s body is really good at protecting that developing life, and the umbilical cord is one good example. A healthy umbilical cord can be twisted, compressed, knotted or bent and still manage to get enough nutrients and blood to the baby. It’s designed to handle a lot of stress, and apparently fetuses tend to put it through quite a lot, pulling, tugging and twisting it as they grow and explore their watery little world in there. It’s so tough, in fact, that the scissors or knife that the doctor (or the daddy) uses to cut it after birth has to be really sharp to work through it.

3 – There are some potentially major problems that can happen with an umbilical cord, like a too short cord or one that wraps around the neck too tightly right before birth. But doctors all know about these problems, and are really good these days at diagnosing them and immediately instituting measures to fix the problem or move the mom into an emergency C-section to bypass the issue. So even if a big problem does occur, it’s likely to be ok with quick action.

Learning so much about umbilical cords has made me feel a bit better about my baby’s apparent obsession with tangling up his own. In a cute turn of events dealing with the cord, one of the photos we got from his 20 week ultrasound shows him with his hands clenched above him. He was, as the doctor explained, holding onto the umbilical cord with both hands, checking out his lifeline and showing us on camera this strange thing that’s floating around in the amniotic sac with him.