How the Umbilical Cord is Cut Can Affect the Rest of Your Life

The article below is from the Globe and Mail national Canadian newspaper. I was excited to see it because it is finally addressing the subject of when to cut the umbilical cord of a newborn baby. Many people don't consider this a significant question, but my long history in working with improving childbirth and the health of babies has made this a very strong issue with me.

The fact of the matter is that the timing of the cutting-of-the-cord, as well as the location of the cut, is very important with regards to the health of the baby from that moment on, for the rest of their life. The article below focuses on the timing of the cutting and is self-explanatory. It also has the usual opposing views from various aspects of the medical profession.

I want to address something else involved with this decision. It's not good enough to say you should wait at least five minutes or longer to cut the cord. That should be obvious. The newborn baby is strongly reliant on his or her placenta for sustenance and oxygen. It takes a little while before its lungs and other functions can take over that job. That can vary from baby to baby but the fact is, if you cut the cord too soon, or to late, there are many ramifications both physically (nutrition, blood, oxygen, etc.) and psychologically (separation issues, abandonment issues, fear of survival, etc.)

Further, if you cut the cord too close to the body it affects the energy system to cause a slower and more sluggish nervous system and metabolism for life. Cutting too far away will cause an over stimulated energy system which mainly affects the nervous system and gives it a lifelong tendency to be hyper-reactive.

Nature tells us when, and where to cut the cord. If you leave the baby for a while, then after several minutes one small section of the cord will start to contract and shrivel. Soon, it will contract sufficiently to shut down all flow from the placenta to the baby. This is nature doing this function at the right time for that particular baby. That is when, and where the animal will chew through the cord. It is also when, and where, we humans can safely cut the cord. The time and place will vary with each baby according to individual needs.

Taking notice of what nature shows us will go a long way to improving the health of the baby and the subsequent ramifications in adult life.

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Taken from the Globe and Mail, Canada April 24, 2013

When exactly should the cord be cut during birth?

Most expecting parents anticipate having to decide who – whether it’s a birthing partner or health-care professional – will cut the umbilical cord when their babies are born. But few consider the question of when to cut it.

The decision of how long to wait before clamping and severing the umbilical cord can have serious consequences for a newborn’s health, according to Dr. David Hutchon, the past president of the North of England Obstetrical and Gynaecological Society. And in many cases, he says, physicians and midwives are doing it too soon, depriving babies of blood.

Doctors traditionally clamp the cord immediately, in the belief it can reduce the risk of neonatal jaundice and protect infants from drugs administered to the mother.

But Hutchon joins a growing chorus of experts who are promoting delayed clamping. Some health organizations, such as the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation, recommend that clamping be delayed for at least one minute for healthy babies, and the World Health Organization also recognizes there is growing evidence to support delayed clamping. Meanwhile, a small fringe advocates not cutting the cord at all, allowing newborns to remain attached to the placenta for days, until the cord detaches on its own.

As media organizations such as the New York Post and the Daily Mail have recently reported, these so-called “lotus births” have become a trend in the United States. Parents who opt for lotus births typically keep the intact placenta wrapped in cloth until the cord breaks.

Hutchon, who does not have a strong view on lotus births, says the decision of when to clamp and sever the cord should depend not on a specified amount of time, but on when the baby has established his or her own breathing and no longer relies on the placenta. This can be determined when the umbilical cord is no longer turgid with blood and has ceased pulsating, which generally occurs three to five minutes after birth.

“If at birth, the cord is clamped quickly, a lot of blood can be trapped in the placenta,” Hutchon says, noting that babies can lose significant blood volume, which could eventually lead to anemia, iron deficiency, and potentially, in rare cases, cerebral palsy.

A Swedish study published in 2011 found that four months after delivery, iron levels were 45 per cent higher in infants whose umbilical cords were clamped at least three minutes after they were born, compared with babies whose cords were clamped within 10 seconds.

Delayed cord-clamping is especially important when newborns are unable to breathe on their own and require resuscitation, since continued blood circulation through the placenta will ensure they get at least some oxygenated blood, as well as adequate blood volume and extra stem cells, which may be help repair any tissue damage, Hutchon says.

Nevertheless, clamping less than a minute after birth remains common practice, says Hutchon, explaining that it may be a holdover from the 1950s, when doctors sought to protect infants from drugs given to mothers to prevent postpartum hemorrhage.

But the need to immediately administer such drugs to the mother is “complete nonsense,” Hutchon says. He says the drugs can be administered after the umbilical cord has quit pulsing and has been clamped and severed.

Carl Backes, a neonatal physician with the Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, adds that early clamping may also relate to anecdotal evidence that delayed clamping could increase the risk of jaundice in babies. He says, however, there is an “abundance of evidence” to support delayed clamping.

At the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada (SOGC), chief executive Dr. Jennifer Blake says there are considerations for both early clamping and delayed clamping. She suggests parents should discuss with their obstetricians, doctors or midwives about the relative pros and cons and what is most appropriate option for them.

The SOGC’s guidelines notes that for babies born at full term, the potential risk of neonatal jaundice “must be weighed against the physiological benefit of greater hemoglobin and iron levels up to six months of age conferred by delayed clamping.” Blake adds that parents who want to bank their babies’ cord blood need to have their cords clamped early. Cord blood-banking stores the stem cell-rich blood taken from the umbilical cord for the possible future treatment of a variety of ailments, such as blood disorders and metabolic disorders.

While lotus births may be gaining more attention, Vancouver home birth attendant and midwifery educator Gloria Lemay has yet to see evidence that it is a growing trend in Canada. In the past 33 years, Lemay says she has only attended about 20 lotus births out of more than 1,000. “It takes very patient people to do it,” she says, saying that while lotus births are safe, handling the baby and its attached placenta can be cumbersome.

“It’s a small number of people who are interested in it, but they’re devoted to it,” says Lemay, who typically waits two hours after a home birth – allowing time to prepare food for the mother and letting the parents relax – before she inquires whether they want to cut the cord. “There’s no rush.”

Dr. Eileen Hutton, director of the midwifery education program at McMaster University, says she is not aware of any particular health benefits to leaving the umbilical cord intact longer than three to five minutes. At the same time, she says she is not aware of any health concerns about lotus births. “I don’t think the practice is well studied, and thus we could only speculate on any risks,” she said.

The London-based Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists issued a statement in 2008 that noted a lack of research regarding safety.

“No research exists on lotus births and there is currently no medical evidence that it is of benefit to the baby,” it said, warning that infants should be monitored carefully for possible signs of infection that may be spread from the placenta.

Sneak Peak: The Science and Philosophy of BodyTalk Book

My journey in personal growth and what I would call personal awareness started at quite a young age when my father graciously spent several nights a week taking me to martial arts classes. I was lucky to have drawn a teacher who extended my vision beyond martial arts to the power of personal development by teaching me many disciplines such as Zen meditation and the power of the mind.

I was eight years old when that journey began. I soon learned that skills did not come from simply doing a lot of exercises and building big muscles. I was fortunate to have an instructor who realized that the true strengths found in martial arts come from the Energy (Qi) within and the training of the mind in focus and intent. Unusually, I had good discipline at that age to train hard and, in particular, to do extensive Zen meditation practices to discipline my mind.

During those early years, I learned that I could put my hand through a stack of clay tiles without the need of big muscles and hard calluses on my hands. My hands remained soft throughout my decade of martial arts training because I always knew I wanted them in good order for when I later practised healthcare. By the age of 15, using focus and intent and harnessing my Qi, I was able to drive my hand without incurring injury through stacks of up to 30 tiles at a time.

However, brute strength can only do so much. I saw large muscular men with hard, callused hands attempt to break similar stacks of tiles, and only make it through the first 20 because the sheer brute power could only keep the momentum going through those first 20 tiles. By going through the mental process of directing Qi right through to the bottom of the stack of tiles, I not only reached the bottom of the tiles but would shatter them into hundreds of small pieces from the sheer explosive impact of the Qi.

When I was about 11, I taught myself how to hypnotize. It seemed to be just an extension of my meditation practices that enabled me to affect other people. To me, it was a way of exploring the nature of the mind and just how powerfully it influences the body. 

In my later teens, I did several experiments to demonstrate how much the mind could affect the physiology of the body, its health, and its strengths by simply getting the false ego out of the way through the means of hypnotism. However, my goal was to utilize this knowledge and gain a better understanding of how to help the mind and the energy system of the average person, and maintain healthcare and quality of life, in a natural way.

In my early years as a chiropractor I worked at two different levels of chiropractic:
Symptomatic – based on physical manipulation to mobilize the body and relieve pain.
Traditional – based on the principle of balancing the nervous system through specific spinal adjustments to improve general health. This also involved the concept of allowing the Innate energy of the body to flow freely through the spine to all the body parts.

With the first level, I was basically acting in my capacity to address back problems and relieve back pain. This tended to utilize my osteopathic background to do osteopathic manipulation of the spine designed to mobilize the spinal segments and restore movement where they were previously restricted.

With the second level, however, in my public lectures and in my literature, I talked a great deal about the philosophy of what I would call “traditional” chiropractic. At this stage, in Australia, the public generally saw chiropractors as “bone crunchers” who “fixed” backs. Eventually, over a period of two years of patient education, I developed a practice where less than 20 percent of my patients came to me with back problems. The other 80 percent came for general health concerns and received good results in a specific range of health challenges.

A typical example: One of my patients had been coming to me for about five treatments for general back pain and was responding very well. In fact, I was at the stage of giving him his final treatment when he mentioned that he had been reading my literature. He had read that chiropractic could help stomach ulcers and explained that he had been suffering from severe stomach pain, especially at night, for several years. As the medication he was taking from the doctor was not helping much, he asked if I could try using my system.

I had actually finished the specific treatment for his back pain but asked him to lie back on the treatment table. I proceeded to adjust him using the traditional chiropractic technique, with the very specific intent and focus of balancing the sympathetic and parasympathetic nerve supply to the stomach region and restoring Innate flow to the body. Remember that my previous osteopathic adjustments had an intent and focus of simply mobilizing the spine and relieving back pain.

Two days later, the patient rang me to say he just had the best two nights’ sleep of his life. I treated him four more times along the same lines and when I saw him six months later for another problem, he mentioned that his stomach had been normal throughout those previous six months.

Once again this highlighted, to me, the absolute importance of intent and focus in any technique performed on living things. Later, as an acupuncturist, I encountered similar situations all the time. For simple conditions, I often used a symptomatic approach in my acupuncture formulas that afforded me good results in the average case. I had a very busy practice and they were quick and simple to do. However, whenever I encountered a particularly tough case that was not responding after three treatments, I found myself having to shift mode into my traditional acupuncture training. This involved a full diagnostic profile of reading pulses, tongue, etc.

I found that on most occasions, once I shifted my mode of thinking into a fully traditional way and worked out a specific tailor-made formula for that particular patient’s condition, I often ended up with a combination of acupuncture points very similar to what I was already using. Again, the big difference was my intent and focus as I inserted the needles. In my years as a senior lecturer in an acupuncture college, I often demonstrated to the students just how much intent and focus determined the outcome of a needle insertion. Simply inserting a needle into an acupuncture point can have a certain predictable effect. However, when the practitioner has a detailed understanding of the whole meridian system and the ebbs and flows of the energy according to the time of day, lunar phases, and gender of the patient, then a skilled traditional acupuncturist can effectively cause many different changes in the energy systems of the body by the use of the same acupuncture point simply by changing the intent and focus while inserting the needle.

Over my many years in practice, I saw this concept to be relevant in almost all forms of healthcare that involve energy at different levels. Another example would be homeopathy, which is, in fact, energy medicine. A traditional homeopath can prescribe a single ingredient that, with his intent and focus as he gives the remedy to the patient, has a far better result than the symptomatic homeopaths using standard formulas designed for specific outcomes. I also saw this effect in applied kinesiology, craniosacral therapy, and the use of machines to generate frequencies for specific outcomes.

My early life experiences clearly demonstrated to me that the state and quality of training of a practitioner, his focus and intent, his clarity of thought, and the rapport that he has with his patients are seriously important factors determining the outcome of any therapeutic situation.

During the early years as I was developing The BodyTalk System, one other factor, in addition to the above, became apparent to me. That factor is the importance of the attention of the practitioner in any therapeutic situation. In BodyTalk, a differentiation is emphasized between the terms “attention” and “intention”.

In many energy-based modalities, one often hears the phrase “it is the intention that matters.” From this perspective, intention carries the connotation of agenda. When practitioners proceed with intent, they are proceeding toward a goal with bias and expectations derived from past training and experiences hoping for a specific outcome to the session or treatment.

In BodyTalk, sessions are conducted by the practitioner paying full attention to what is happening in the present moment. The practitioner is there with the client – fully. In this way, attention and awareness take advantage of the interfacing of the left and right brain hemispheres which encourage Innate mental clarity. However, when treatments are given with intent, as is the norm and what I believed in for many years, the practitioner’s own agenda, beliefs and expectations inhibit the healthy interfacing of the left and right brain hemispheres.

Order your book today! All book orders will be shipped after the official book launch on May 2nd during my public lecture in Toronto, Canada (this event will be streamed live online for free).

BodyTalk and Science

 Recorded by Felix Schembri in Wiggensbach/Germany in the IBA office in Europe

Breast Health

I came across this article the other day and thought it would be rather fitting to post on my blog since in BodyTalk we have always supported the idea that the bra is harmful to breast health.

Do Women Need Bras? French Study Says Bras are a 'False Necessity'

The Huffington Post by Sara Gates. Click here for the article and video.

Women who go braless may actually have the right idea, new research suggests.

According to the results of a 15-year study in France published Wednesday, bras provide no benefits to women and may actually be harmful to breasts over time.

"Medically, physiologically, anatomically, the breast does not benefit from being deprived of gravity," Jean-Denis Rouillon, a professor at the University of Franche-Comté in Besançon, told France Info.

Conducting the study at the university's hospital, Rouillon measured and examined the breasts of more than 300 women, aged 18 and 35, taking note of how the additional support provided by bras affects the body over time. (It should be noted the study does not mention breast size.)

Overall, he found that women who did not use bras benefited in the long term, developing more muscle tissue to provide natural support. As France's The Local notes, Rouillon also noticed that nipples gained a higher lift, in relation to the shoulders, on women who went braless. When bras are worn, the restrictive material prevents such tissue from growing, which may actually accelerate sagging, the study concluded.

Capucine Vercellotti, a 28-year-old woman who participated in the research, found that she breathes easier without the constraints of a bra.

"At first, I was a little reluctant to the idea of running without a bra, but I got started and after five minutes, I had no trouble at all," Vercellotti said, according to the Agence France-Presse.

But don't throw away your bras just yet, ladies.

Despite the findings, Rouillon said it would be dangerous to advise all women to take off their bras based on the study's sample, which may not be representative of the population.

Speaking to France Info, Rouillon cautioned women who have worn bras for a long time -- several decades -- from following the recommendation since they would not benefit from taking off their bras now.

The Future of Health Care: Military and Special Forces' Use of Integrative Medicine

By Robert Piper

The future of health care in America and the world at large is integrative medicine. Things like mind-body practices, meditation, yoga, acupuncture, nutrition, and other complementary practices are here to stay. The Samueli Institute is one of several organizations looking to make integrative medicine available to society as a whole; they are tirelessly working to bring it to the men and women who serve in the U.S. military.

I spoke with Dr. Kevin Berry, the vice president for military medical research at Samueli Institute, on how the military is using integrative medicine. He severed in the military for 30 years.

Thanks for the service to our country.

It's been tremendous to be associated with the people I've been associated with. It's been about growth and seeing things that I would never have a chance to see. I think that's why after retiring I didn't want to get too far away from the military. I've been very fortunate to find the Samueli Institute.

I read on your site that over 50 percent of the military uses integrative medicine.

We've done surveys on that, and there are more than what we see in the general population. I think that may be under-reported -- probably on the civilian side also. I don't think that people think of [it], particularly these young kids that are into muscle-building. They're in GNC and they're buying this and that; that's also a part of this story.

We did a leadership needs assessment -- I'm not at liberty to say which base or which service. So I'll use it in more general terms. We're suspicious to say that it wouldn't matter if it was Army or Navy, or this base or that base. But after 10 years of war, we are seeing that these leaders, the colonels, and the lieutenants are maintaining their physical health, their ability to run and all that jazz, but we are seeing deterioration of emotional strength. We're seeing the concerns they have with the tolls on their family, and with it we are seeing this dichotomy on one side there going to it in big numbers, but there's another component that thinks if you go to mind-body or medical massage you are skipping out on being hard.

If you go over to Special Forces, in their contract world they put together a human performance and resilience contract. They haven't awarded it yet, but they are looking to put hard cash on the barrel head. To bring in a whole group of people that would be working with Special Forces and their family members to build resiliency, to include mind-body, nutrition, to help people work on the work/life balance.

You mentioned Special Forces. Are the Navy Seals using integrative medicine, as well?

Yeah, all the services. Special Forces have been doing that for probably a lot longer; I don't think they think of it as unusual any more. I think they've just included as just [a] thing that they do. Martial arts and tai chi are not that much different; it's a physical discipline that gets you back into the moment. There's pretty good evidence that sharp shooters will lower their heart rate and control their heart rate variability as they're contemplating a shot. I think that's probably true of Olympic shooters.

Can you talk about some the research that's been going on with PTSD?

Yeah, we talk about the right of boom and the left of boom. The boom can be any type of traumatic event; we think we need to be working on both sides. So the pre-exposure work that we've done, that looks to teach soldiers some mindfulness. One of them is called War-Ops Warrior Optimization. It's a proprietary for-profit firm that one of the army generals wanted for his units that were going out to Afghanistan and Iraq back in 2009. They asked us to evaluate if it makes any difference, and it was just four hours of mind-body activities. The trends are pretty strong that this makes a difference.

We were just talking here in the last day or two that the Marine Special Forces MARSOC is looking like they are going to purchase this training. They are going to take it a step further and try to reinforce it through leadership and leaders to remind people of it while they're deployed. It looks like we are proposing an evaluation of that. Another example of that would be looking at the Benson-Henry approach for a group of people who have been identified with PTSD.

Another approach is acupuncture for headaches. We have a study going on at Walter Reed and at Fort Belvoir in the Wounded Warrior community with those that are diagnosed with PTSD and chronic headaches. We're still collecting data on that one. That's just to give you an idea of what we're doing.

That brings up the question that all Special Forces, Olympic athletes, mixed martial artists in the UFC [...] use the breathing component to curb the stress response. Can you talk about breathing and the stress response?

That's one of the common things we see in many of these type of programs. Whether it's yoga nidra when you're working with a causality who's physically impaired and maybe recent from surgery. Becoming mindful, using breathing, and getting the mind to focus on breathing. Getting the chest expansion to trigger the parasympathetic nervous system, which can balance the overactive sympathetic system. That's just one example, simple, straightforward meditation, starts with breathing. Special Forces units might use tai chi for an example.

Well, thank you very much, it was great interviewing you.

Access and Africa

Some news from South Africa from Morag Bromfield!

The two projects which we have running at the moment involve a remedial school in Durban where a group of three CBPs, Sue Parnell (who has a son at the school) Jenny Davies and Zelda Bronzin are going into the school daily at the beginning of class, and are teaching the students how to tap out cortices. Once they are happy with how the children are doing the technique, the teachers will encourage them to do this a few times a day and will give us their feedback. 

The second project involves the University where the students involved in Nutritional studies and Homeopathy have asked to be taught Access to enable them to support their clients who have a headache or joint pains, etc and are unable to do this with nutrition and homeopathy alone. There are also a small group of nurses who have been encouraged to attend as well. The University would collect the data and track changes from the clients and give feedback to us. The clients are from a low-cost housing estate and have agreed to have BT daily. I will have more to report once this gets off the ground!

BodyTalk and Sports

Recorded by Felix Schembri in Wiggensbach/Germany in the IBA office in Europe