During his intrauterine life, the baby is “connected” with the mother through a special “bridge” - the umbilical cord. After the child is born, this connection ends. This article will tell you about what day the umbilical cord usually falls off in a newborn and what it depends on.
Features:
During its intrauterine life, the baby is unable to feed independently. It receives all the substances necessary for its growth and development in dissolved form. They enter through the umbilical blood vessels, which are located in the umbilical cord. They also supply oxygen to the child's body, which is necessary for cellular respiration.
The umbilical cord remains in the body of a pregnant woman until the very birth. After the birth of a child, the umbilical cord is also "born". Then the obstetrician-gynecologist cuts off the umbilical cord, thereby "separating" the baby from his mother. The baby will now breathe on its own.
Before cutting off the umbilical cord, the doctor puts special clamps on it. This is necessary so that the umbilical vessels stop their pulsation. This is a kind of "signal" for the baby's internal organs to start their full-fledged work. After the pulsation of the umbilical vessels stops, the obstetrician-gynecologist cuts the umbilical cord.
Obstetricians use different methods of further processing of the umbilical cord stump. The first is that a special clamp ("clothespin") is applied to the umbilical cord without a fixing bandage. Further, the stump is treated with hydrogen peroxide, potassium permanganate or brilliant green. This treatment helps the umbilical stump to dry out and heal. Also, thanks to this method, the likelihood of wound infection is reduced.
Doctors advise treating the umbilical cord before feeding the baby. In this case, he will endure the procedure much more calmly. Parents need not worry when handling the umbilical stump. When carrying out the procedure, remember that it is very important for the baby. The wound should be treated very carefully, all movements should be smooth.
If the baby is discharged from the hospital with a clothespin on the umbilical cord, then it should be processed as well. Germs can also accumulate on the clothespin, which can lead to suppuration of the umbilical wound. Handle the clothespin carefully.
When clamping the umbilical cord with a clothespin, the remaining fragment of the umbilical cord on the baby's body falls off on its own, as a rule, within 4-6 days.
This processing also has a number of disadvantages. So, after childbirth and until the wound is completely healed, the mother should carefully monitor how the baby's navel looks and how it heals.
Good hygiene is essential. It is important to remember that a healing umbilical stump is a wound surface that can fester. In order to prevent infection, the mother should remember that the child should always be taken only with clean hands.
There is another way to process the umbilical cord stump. In this case, doctors remove the remnants of the umbilical cord on the second day after the baby is born. At the same time, they apply a special squeezing bandage on the stump.
In the very first hours, a tight bandage is applied in such a way that it squeezes the cut off umbilical stump quite hard. Subsequently, the pressure gradually decreases. The bandage is usually removed after 24 hours. After that, the wound requires careful care with the use of hydrogen peroxide. In this case, the wound usually heals a week after giving birth.
What affects healing?
The healing time of the umbilical wound depends on many factors. It often happens that a woman who has just become a mother begins to worry that her baby's navel is healing too slowly. Usually, this thought is caused by a previous conversation with a friend, whose umbilical cord healed a little earlier in the child.
Every child is unique from the moment of birth. Tissue healing is an individual process and depends on a huge number of factors. So, the weight and state of the child's immunity can even affect the rate of healing of the umbilical wound. A premature baby with a low birth weight can take much longer to heal the navel than a full-term baby.
The healing time of the umbilical wound can be positively influenced by proper care. So, in order for the umbilical cord stump on the navel to heal faster, doctors recommend swaddling the baby not too tightly.
The ingress of water on the stump of the umbilical cord with a clothespin can help the wound to heal a little longer. That is why drying agents are chosen for drying and treating the wound.
The "stumbling block" in leaving is often a clothespin applied to the umbilical cord. The reviews of many mothers indicate that it was she who caused them real horror when processing the umbilical cord stump. Many women begin to worry that the clothespin may break off and something terrible and irreparable will happen. Don't worry about this.
Doctors note that with proper hygienic care, the clothespin left on the umbilical cord stump will fall off on its own. But the time it will take for this may vary. For some, it persists for a couple of days, while for others it does not disappear in a week. In this case, it is not the length of time the clothespin is on the umbilical cord stump that is important, but careful hygienic care. With proper treatment of the umbilical wound and the clothespin itself, the risk of infection of the navel in a newborn is minimal.
What does a baby's navel look like?
The appearance of the umbilical cord in the first days after childbirth can really scare young and as yet inexperienced parents. The navel of a newborn baby is normal in the very first hours after childbirth. It represents only a wound surface with a cut off the stump of the umbilical cord. However, this is only a temporary phenomenon. As a rule, after a week, the remains of the umbilical cord will fall off, and the baby's navel will look much better.
Another symptom that can alert and scare young parents is the appearance of a slight bleeding from the umbilical stump. This situation can also be. A sufficient amount of time must pass for the navel to heal. In some babies, tissues heal slowly, so it takes longer to heal.
Mechanical trauma to the navel may be accompanied by the development of minor bleeding. Young parents in the first days after the birth of their long-awaited baby are so much worried and worried that they will do something wrong that they can contribute to damage to the umbilical wound by their actions. So, droplets of blood on the stump of the umbilical cord in a baby can appear with inaccurate putting on diapers or with careless hygienic care of the skin of a newborn child.
Care of a newborn baby should be done very carefully and carefully. The baby's skin is very delicate and easily injured, so all actions performed in relation to him should be very careful.
When a small amount of blood appears in the umbilical wound in the first days from the moment of birth, no treatment is required. This symptom will go away on its own and without medical intervention.
If the parents find that the child has pus in the navel, then it is urgent to show the baby to the pediatrician. In this situation, the appointment of special topical drugs is required, which have antibacterial and wound-healing effects.
For information on how to process the umbilical cord of a newborn, see the next video.
