Question: why does new born babies have the chord that u have to cut of..?? :)

Jean Bourke answered on 15 Nov 2012:

Hi

Initially in the womb when the egg if first fertilized it will implant in the soft blood vessel rich lining of the mother’s womb. The egg, like all eggs, has a yolk which has nutrients stored for the baby. In animals that lay eggs there is enough there for the whole baby animal to develop, hence they have large eggs. In humans, and other placental mammals, the mother nourishes the baby for most of the pregnancy, trough the placenta (hence placental mammals as opposed to marsupials).

Since our eggs are really small the lining of the womb (the placenta) will provide the nutrients for the growing baby. The umbilical cord carried the nutrients into the baby. The baby’s blood is in the umbilical cord and both the mother’s and the baby’s blood are in the placenta. They never mix, instead nutrients and waste are exchanged across a very thin membrane.

When the baby is born it no longer needs this cord as it will get all the nutrients it needs from the mother’s milk and get rid of its waste the same way as the rest of us do (exhale carbon dioxide, pee out water soluble waste and poo out solid waste). The cord still has the baby’s blood in it, before it is cut it must be clamped, even it is not clamped after about 10 mins it will have stopped pulsing (be cut off from the baby’s blood supply) naturally and it will eventually dry and fall off. Nowadays it is clamped then cut quite soon after birth. The little stub that remains dried and falls off leaving a bellybutton in a few days. The placenta and the rest of the umbilical cord form the afterbirth which will come out of the mother within about 30 mins of the baby being born. This is called the 3rd stage of labour.

Hope that explains it.