What Is the Function of the Umbilical Cord?
When a woman or a female mammal is pregnant, the growing baby lives inside her uterus. The baby gets its nourishment and also eliminates waste through the umbilical cord. Immediately following the birth, the baby's umbilical cord is cut. Several days later, the old cord dries up and falls off. In its place, a belly button remains.
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Identification
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The umbilical cord attaches the placenta to the fetus, which is the proper name for the growing baby. The placenta is where blood diffuses or intermixes between a mother and her baby. It is also where the pregnancy connects to the inner wall of the uterus.
Features
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The umbilical cord contains two arteries and one vein. The arteries bring blood to the placenta and the vein returns blood to the fetus. In the placenta, oxygen and nutrients pass to the baby's blood, while carbon dioxide and other waste products excreted by the baby pass to the mother's blood to be removed from her body.
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Identification
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Umbilical cords vary in length and diameter. At birth, the average length of an umbilical cord is 55 cm, but it can be as long as 300 cm. The average diameter of an umbilical cord at birth is 1 or 2 cm, although it can be as large as 3 cm.
Warning
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Occasionally an umbilical cord becomes knotted because of the active movement of the baby in the uterus. This happens in about 1 percent of all pregnancies. Another complication, nuchal cord, is when the umbilical cord becomes wrapped around a baby's neck.
Effects
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The last stage of the birth process is the delivery of the placenta, or after-birth. The labor attendant gently tugs on the umbilical cord during a final contraction as the mother pushes the placenta, which resembles a large piece of calf liver, out through her vagina. Blood can be harvested from the umbilical cord at this point. This cord blood is very valuable for stem cell research and as an alternative treatment when a bone marrow transplant is necessary. Harvested cord blood is kept in a cord blood bank.
Expert Insight
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It takes between 10 and 21 days for the stump of the umbilical cord to dry and drop off of the newborn's abdomen. The stump is a length of about an inch that remains connected to the baby. It is important to keep the stump clean and dry until it falls off on its own.
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