Umbilical cord blood taken?

Question

when i had my daughter at 37weeks due to pre-eclampsia i can vaguely remember them taking the blood from the umbilical cord attached to the placenta with a needle. I wasn't really with it at the time so have no idea why they would have done this, as i didnt mention anything about stem-cells to them etc... anybody have any ideas why they would have done this?

Answer 1

Yes - they do this to measure the blood gases in the babies blood.  They can rapidly do this test to get various levels of blood gases from vein blood and artery blood - this helps in any problems in the first coule of hours with baby..  The blood gases at birth are pretty important and with your pre-eclampsia they would have been taking precautions.

If you do a search on umbillical blood gases you will get all the science behind it.

ETA - Sometime hospital do take the blood gases as part of research for future deliveries and this is quick and easy way to get "normal" level for standard deliveries - and generally they do not need consent as it is from the placenta. :-)

Good luck.

Answer 2

That goes to the lab for some tests ... CBC, electrolytes, blood sugar, maybe oxygen levels, and sometimes to the blood bank as a "just in case we need a transfusion" sample.

It has nothing to do with collecting stem cells.

Answer 3

That is interesting. I have no idea. I would check with the hospital. That sounds weird.