True Knots Happen: Growing a Long Umbilical Cord
It is always good to grow a long umbilical cord so that true knots and cord coils around the baby’s neck are less likely to cause complications. Pregnant Mothers sometimes feel anxious about the baby’s cords, especially if they are told that the ultrasound scan shows a cord coiled around baby’s neck.
Mothers, you may grow a longer umbilical cord for baby by eating sweet oranges every day. Also eat the white strings found between orange segments, and some of the orange pith, that white spongey substance you see when peeling an orange. Do not eat the seeds. Think of orange pith as the connective tissue of an orange. This simple practice can increase the healthy Wharton’s Jelly around your baby’s umbilical cord, and help the cord grow longer, stronger, and more resilient when stretched. We always recommend this simple bit of pregnancy advice at Bumi Sehat in Bali.
Stories About Long Umbilical Cords
A Healing Birth
Hana, from Aotearoa, the Māori-language name for New Zealand, came to Bumi Sehat for a prenatal checkup. She was very upset to be pregnant. When she showed me her belly there was a big tattoo depicting a closed zipper.When I saw this, I began to cry, I looked in her eyes and said, do you have a story you want to share? She took a deep breath and explained that this was her 2nd baby, eighteen years earlier, while still a teenager Hana had a baby boy, his umbilical cord was very short and ruptured when she was in advanced labor. This is a rare complication of a very short umbilical cord, most babies with short cords are born without complications. After the death of her baby Hana vowed not to try to become a mother again, she could not bear more heartbreak, should something go wrong. Here she was eighteen years later, 5 months pregnant and shocked that the precautions she and her husband took to prevent pregnancy did not work. All I could do was hold her, as her tears finally flowed.
“This must be a powerful baby, to find a way to choose you and keep himself a secret for five months.” I said, sensing this baby was a boy. I explained to Hana how many mothers grew long umbilical cords for their babies by often eating oranges and eating the strings between the orange segments and white pith inside the peel, I went to the kitchen and brought her a jeruk manis, a sweet, easy to peel, Bali orange. (Like a tangerine.) Hana continued prenatal care and 20 weeks later she birthed a beautiful healthy baby boy. His long cord was around his neck two times and around his torso twice plus circling around his left leg many times. We laughed in wonder as Hana had been so afraid about the cord perhaps being around baby’s neck. We midwives would remind her that, “The umbilical cord is not a noose, it’s a lifeline.”
When we measured Baby Koa’s umbilical cord, it was 1 meter plus 49 centimeters long!! Mother Hana marveled, “Well I ate the darn oranges every day, all day, now I believe you, we really can grow super long umbilical cords.”
Climate Crisis and Placentas
When my own daughter Zhou was expecting her first baby, Bear, she was transported from the Thrive Birth Center to the hospital for an emergency cesarean birth due to placental abruption during her labor. She was living in Santa Rosa California where fires driven by the Climate Crisis had destroyed much of the area. It was the last thing we imagined could happen to Zhou, a doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine whose specialty is Reproductive Health.
This was a case in which cesarean birth saved the baby and because the abruption of placenta was causing my daughter to bleed too much, the belly birth also preserved her life. The wonderful midwives and maternity nurses I got to know shared many stories of placental abruption since the Santa Rosa fires. They have a theory that the fires cause burned plastics and chemicals to pollute the ground water. Via drinking and bathing the micro plastics and other pollutants can enter human and animal bodies. The increased incidence of placental abruption may be partly caused by the micro plastics. Stress may also be a factor, especially in traumatized communities.
When Zhou was expecting her 2nd baby, she planned vaginal birth after cesarean. Because of the pandemic hospitals did not allow mothers to bring a companion with them in labor and childbirth. Rather than face her baby’s birth all alone, with only masked strangers in the hospital, my daughter chose to birth at home. During the pandemic midwives became even more important links in the golden chain of MotherBaby safety.
Zhou eats a balanced healthy diet, focusing on organic foods when available. Her lifestyle and health have always been very vibrant. She was also eating citrus including some pith, almost daily. She had had one ultrasound that indicated all was well, there was plenty of amniotic fluid and baby was as well as can be determined. An interesting aside, the doctor who did the ultrasound commented, “No cord around the baby’s neck.”
When I arrived from Indonesia to be my daughter’s midwife the world was in the worst weeks of the global Covid-19 pandemic. It was a miracle that the Bali airport opened for three days only, and believe me, I was on one of those flights to meet Zhou, her husband, Rin, and my toddler grandson, Bear, in Texas, where her sister Déjà would be our birth doula and amazing hostess in her home. I contacted the beautiful midwife Cassaundra Jah and she agreed to help.
My daughter’s baby decided to assume a posterior position. Zhou’s labor was quite painful on her back. She labored hands and knees all night, and we did Rebozo and back to hands and knees in the shower. Just when things seemed grim and we worried about how horrible transport to hospital would be during this pandemic lock down, laboring mothers not being permitted to have even one family member or companion with them in hospital, Zhou’s water released with a splash and baby had spiraled into optimal position for birth! Slowly gently my granddaughter was visible, Zhou was pushing well in a squat, supported by her husband and her sister. Suddenly when baby was half crowning her heartbeat dropped from 130 to 40! I knew I had to act quickly, and I cut an episiotomy (Of over 15,000 births Bumi Sehat midwives and I have only done 5 episiotomies, the cut that widens the vagina for fast immediate birth. It is something I only ever do when necessary to mitigate an emergency.) With amazing strength Zhou birthed baby Joanna in the next push. Joanna’s head emerged and then we saw the cause of the drop in her heartbeat, her umbilical cord was wrapped tightly around her neck, five times!
I did not cut the cord, which is standard medical procedure in this situation, I was able to quickly, with the help of midwife Cassaundra, unwind the cord. “One two there four five we counted out loud. Baby Joanna was quite floppy and blue, but she came right around with stimulation, her heartbeat stabilized, her skin became pink, and her muscle tone was soon perfect, she was safe and well born cradled in her mother’s arms. We did notice some bruising around her neck, from the tight umbilical cord. Sound nutrition and healthy lifestyle made it possible for a baby with five cord coils around her neck, to be perfectly born at home. My daughter later joked, “My mom made me eat those orange stings and the pith of the peel, every darn day, I was so sick of it, but it worked, my spiraling baby was born safely!”
Mothers-to-be: To grow a long, strong beautiful umbilical cord, eat oranges.
Mother Kandida in Bali, enjoying an orange before her prenatal check up at Bumi Sehat