Pregnancy is a great time to expect a miracle and the gradual development of the fetus. From how successful the pregnancy will be, the future health of the child is largely determined. Women in the situation are advised to avoid certain things: alcohol, cigarettes, junk food, and the like. But there are external factors that can negatively affect the child: climate, ecology, stress ... Anything that certainly won’t benefit the child is better to exclude from the life of the mother, because her main task is to endure and give birth to a healthy and happy baby. Therefore, future mothers should not worry about trifles, always be positively tuned. A negative can provoke entwining with an umbilical cord, the consequences of which will be visible after the birth of the baby.
A little information. The umbilical cord is a very important organ that connects the fetus and the pregnant woman, which is needed only during this very pregnancy. The umbilical cord consists of vessels, among which the main arteries are the umbilical cord and vein. Vein provides the mother with arterial blood supply to the baby with everything necessary for his life: oxygen and nutrients. And through the arteries from the fetus, carbon dioxide and metabolic products exit the mother’s body with venous blood.
Umbilical cord entanglement: consequences
An ultrasound doctor, which mom passes at least three times during pregnancy, will definitely inform you if the fetus is entwined with an umbilical cord. Of course, taking and unraveling the umbilical cord will not work, why bother the pregnant woman and tell her about such unpleasant news? And then, if a person is warned, he is armed. In practice, often a gynecologist will explain that entwining the umbilical cord is not scary, especially if it is single. The child, as if with a scarf, can wrap the umbilical cord a certain number of times even in one day. A turn in one direction - and the umbilical cord entwined around the baby, a turn in the other - it is free again! But here the determining risk factor is the length of the umbilical cord itself. If it is short, then this is already dangerous, especially if the entanglement is not single.
But if the entanglement of the umbilical cord, the consequences of which you want to avoid, has already arisen and has not passed to the next ultrasound, you can go for a little trick. The fact is that the baby in the womb hears and recognizes the voices of mom and dad. Therefore, it is the future parents who should persuade the baby to unravel the umbilical cord: gently stroke the tummy and ask your child to remove the “scarf” and not wear it again. Very often, this method works and during childbirth, entanglement is not determined.
In addition to the fact that the entanglement can be double, triple, and so on (depending on the length of the umbilical cord), the umbilical cord can wrap around the baby’s neck, his arm or leg, body. While he is in the womb, entwining the umbilical cord does not pose a danger to the baby (if you catch the sufficiency of the umbilical cord itself). But in childbirth, entwining with umbilical cord consequences can provoke a variety of, including very severe ones. Here, much will be decided by the qualifications and experience of the staff receiving the birth. Seeing on time and fixing is their primary concern.
In addition to all of the above, it is also worth noting that entanglement can be both true and false. False entanglement - this is when the doctor makes an ultrasound mark on the presence of entanglement, but in fact there isn’t any - just the umbilical cord has formed in such a way that it looks like a “loop” on the screen. Whether it really is or not - it will become clear only during childbirth.
If the baby is entwined with an umbilical cord, it is necessary to listen to the advice of a doctor, go through all the examinations and follow the recommendations. Even if the child had an umbilical cord entanglement, the consequences are most often not observed, but in severe cases, the development of asphyxia in childbirth is possible, which in the future threatens the baby with difficult diagnoses (cerebral palsy, developmental delay, mental retardation). In some cases, a strong entanglement can lead to the birth of a dead child (therefore, with repeated and tight entanglement, doctors recommend a birth by Caesarean section). Sometimes intrauterine circulatory disorders in the fetus also occur. The consequences will almost certainly be if the umbilical cord is short, or too tight from the numerous entanglement, which led to impaired blood flow. The very fact of a blood flow disorder will become clear on Dopplerometry, which will be prescribed by a gynecologist if it is suspected that the fetus has any problems.