Amanda has been in Midwifery practice for over 27 years. Although most of her practice has been in Leeds, she also worked as a Midwife in New Zealand, experiencing a very different model of Midwifery care. Over ten years ago Amanda began to challenging the practice of immediate cord clamping after realising that this common routine practice had absolutely no evidence base and deprived babies of valuable stem cell enriched full blood. Amanda has campaigned for a change in practice from immediate cord clamping to delayed cord clamping and has seen all national and international guidelines change their guidance to recommend this. Amanda is a co-inventor of the award winning Basics/Lifestart trolley which enables vulnerable babies to be ventilated whilst the umbilical cord is kept intact to ensure they receive their full blood benefit. Amanda has written many articles and talked at numerous events about optimal cord clamping and changing practice and fully harnessed the power of social media by participating in an international network of midwives, doctors, birth-workers and parents who share and disseminate the latest in research and education regarding optimal cord clamping. Amanda has been nominated and won several awards for her work in this area including Midwife of the Year 2015, British Journal of Midwifery and Midwife of the Year 2012, Yorkshire Evening Post. She works with and supports midwives in other countries to enable them to give informed choice and practical guidance in optimal cord clamping. In This Episode: Where immediate cord clamping originated and why The evidence behind immediate cord clamping (hint: there is NONE!) Babies lose 30% of their blood volume with immediate cord clamping The amazing composition of cord blood and why your baby gains more benefit from the full cord blood at the time, rather than bank the blood for later use Where Amanda’s interest in cord clamping came from Immediate cord clamping linked to autism The gradual change in guidelines – slower than ideal Differences in active and physiologic 3rd stage (placenta delivery) The movement toward a physiologic 3rd stage in a non-complicated birth Why the NICE (National Institute for Clinical Excellence) were reluctant to change their guidelines Where some hospitals are better than others in catching up with implementing the new guidelines The difference between delayed and optimal cord clamping How to optimise your baby’s transition from in utero to the big wide world Guidelines vary throughout the world, and hospital policies are different even within the UK Oxytocic drugs to deliver the placenta, as well as immediate cord clamping, are interventions for which informed choice needs to be made How we as parents can make a change to practice!! This is a global problem, not just a UK problem Special circumstances: prematurity or poorly babies (those who bandit most from delayed cord clamping) The LifeStyle trolley which allows babies to be resuscitated with the cord intact, reducing many health problems in compromised babies My fundraising brain wave to allow every hospital to have a LifeStyle trolley to help more babies receive optimal cord clamping – edit: these machines are around £7k each, so I thought it’d be more beneficial to raise awareness from the ground up educating mums to be! Current understanding of the negative effects of immediate cord clamping Further Resources: Amanda’s Optimal Cord Clamping: Wait for White Facebook page Andersson, O., Domellöf, M., Andersson, D. and Hellström-Westas, L. (2014). Effect of Delayed vs Early Umbilical Cord Clamping on Iron Status and Neurodevelopment at Age 12 Months. JAMA Pediatrics, 168(6), p.547. Andersson, O., Lindquist, B., Lindgren, M., Stjernqvist, K., Domellöf, M. and Hellström-Westas, L. (2015). Effect of Delayed Cord Clamping on Neurodevelopment at 4 Yea