Pulsing the cord and collecting cord blood. You can do both!

Many families ask me if they can pulse the their baby's cord blood before they collect.  My answer to this question is always yes. I do recommend that you inform your provider that you would like to do both procedures. Typically the cord will only pulse  two to three minutes after birth. After the cord stop pulsing your health care provider will insert the needle  from the cord blood into the umbilical cord and drain the cord blood into the cord blood bag. You can insert into the umbilical cord  2 times as long as the injection site is wiped with alcohol and iodine. Some milking of the cord may be needed in order to get as much of the remaining blood as possible. I also recommend  that you review your health history and if you do have a family history of cancer, diabetes and  heart disease, you may want to shorten the length of time the cord blood pulses so you can get a larger  cord blood collection