The placenta and the umbilical cord

The placenta and umbilical cord facilitate the transfer of nutrients and oxygen from the mother to the foetus, whilst also carrying waste products back. They form during the first trimester of pregnancy and are expelled from the mother’s body spontaneously after the baby is born, during the third stage of labour.

Delayed clamping of the umbilical cord

Clamping and cutting the umbilical cord more than 60 seconds after the baby is born. Normally, the umbilical cord is cut 3–5 minutes after birth, which is when the cord has finished pulsating; the father may cut it. Delayed clamping is also performed in caesarean sections. In exceptional cases, however, the newborn’s condition may be so serious that delayed clamping cannot be performed and immediate care must be initiated.

Delayed cord clamping offers a number of benefits for the newborn: it improves postnatal adaptation, provides a significant additional volume of blood, helps prevent iron deficiency in the first months of life, and provides stem cells, etc.

Delivery of the placenta

After the placenta is delivered, its condition and integrity are checked, and it is then usually disposed of with biological waste, unless it needs to be sent for histological analysis. If you wish to take your placenta home for personal use, this is possible. In this case, please bring a container of a suitable size with a secure lid in which you can take it away.

Placenta print

If you do not wish to take the placenta home with you but would still like to keep a lovely memento of it, we offer the option of preserving a placenta print on special paper. We provide the placenta print free of charge.