Midwifery Today Community

 I have heard of burning through the cord, but have never tried it. It sounds ideal for 3rd world midwives who do not have access to, or at best have limited access to sterile cord cutting & clamping tools. I do not feel comfortable experimenting on my clients or on the 3rd world clients. Does anyone have more concrete info for me? If it is burnt through with flame or cut with a red hot knife blade how long does it need to be to not also coagulate baby's circulating blood? Does it still need to be tied off? What are infection rates associated with it, vs other methods?

Hi Marlene,

I did it once as requested by the parents.  There is a midwife in my area who is a big advocate of cord burning so the other mama's hear about it and want to try the new thing.  In a situation where I had no access to sterile cutting/clamping tools I would do this again but it's not my preference, at all.  I like cord banding.  Burning takes about 20 minutes with 2 candles burning twords the center of an outstretched cord over a receptacle.   There is a lot of popping and sputtering.  I have a fear of fire near a baby, probably due to my house burning down as a kid.  I also think those 20 minutes are better spent snuggling with mama or nursing.  The cord does to seem to blacken and fall off 3 to 4 days after burning but it does that with banding too.  There are a lot of photos online on cord burning,  I am not sure on infection rates, probably no official study has been done because the population is so small.  It's reminds me of lotus birth.  That was so 'in' a few years ago.