Short umbilical cord

When I gave birth to Alyssa I remember the midwife commenting on how short the umbilical cord was..She said she had never seen one so short, and it had to be cut before she could bring her up to my boob cause she wouldn't reach otherwise. I had a pretty good pregnancy and labour really,.. Alyssa was out after only about 20 minutes of pushing..

Anyway, I was just thinking about it again now and decided to google the "short umbilical cord" thing, and there are lots of articles about how babies with short cords have a higher risk of being stillborn and that labour can be difficult.. a few other worrying bits of information - but in saying that I had no idea the cord was short until the birth as it wasn't picked up by any ultrasounds.

I assume it's random and one site says about 6% of babies are delivered with a short umbilical cord. I'm going to mention it to my midwife as I'm thinking I'd like another scan to check this out specifically, but I dunno..maybe that's being paranoid?
So did anyone else have this with their child(ren)?

Yup, all three of mine had short cords, it's recorded in my notes that they had to have their cords cut before I could hold them. I do wonder if it's a genetic thing. I didn't know about the stillbirth association, but I would have thought a long cord would be just as risky coz it can get tangled/tied in knots.

I don't know if they can check it via u/s tho? They can check the cord insertion and the blood flow thru the cord with dopplers but I'm not sure about cord length coz it's all screwed up in there.

ETA: when I say short, I mean really short, not like I've seen in birth videos etc.

Edited by Maya

Wow, I have no idea how many cm mine were! Can't even guess coz I wasn't paying that much attention at the time!

I know someone who had a short cord with one of her babies and it seemed to be the reason that he was never not breech. Anyway, he was one of 6 kids but the only one with the short cord.

My experience is of long cords. All three of my girls have had cords so long that they were loosely around their necks (1, 2 and 3 times -- eek!). So maybe it does have genetic tendency? Who knows

busymum wrote: I know someone who had a short cord with one of her babies and it seemed to be the reason that he was never not breech. Anyway, he was one of 6 kids but the only one with the short cord.

jack's cord was short and he was breech. mw made a note of it on the records....but nothing was said about charli's cord so i'm guessing hers was normal

I have *counts* 4 words to say to you...

STAY AWAY FROM GOOGLE!

Now repeat after me "Google is not my friend, Google is baaaad!"

Hun, if you're worried I would definitely speak to your MW as she knows your case and your circumstances rather than scaring the bejaysus out of yourself reading worst case scenarios on the net.

Just for the record, Caitlin must have had a fairly long cord as she managed to wrap it around her neck twice AND it also had a true knot in it (apparently very lucky - or lucky she didn't hang herself ).
Big hugs to you, you and bubs will be just fine

My second baby had a normal length cord that he manage dto have wrapped around his neck.

Two Blondinis wrote: I have *counts* 4 words to say to you... STAY AWAY FROM GOOGLE! Now repeat after me "Google is not my friend, Google is baaaad!"

Totally agree with you!!!

Raspberryjam wrote: Two Blondinis wrote: I have *counts* 4 words to say to you... STAY AWAY FROM GOOGLE! Now repeat after me "Google is not my friend, Google is baaaad!" Totally agree with you!!!

But it's so tempting, it's just there and it gives you instant answers to everything

I have a retroverted uterus and I was told with my son that it wouldn't stay that way by about 12-13 weeks because there wasn't enough room. Had no problems as a result and was told that I shouldn't either.