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| |    How The Umbilical Cord Works by Elisa Ross, MD reviewed and revised by Marjorie Greenfield, M.D. The umbilical cord plays a crucial role in the development of your baby: It delivers oxygen and nutrition and carries away waste. It is attached to the placenta on one end and your baby's belly on the other. Inside the baby, it joins up with specialized blood vessels that connect to the heart and liver. The umbilical cord usually has three blood vessels, which spiral around each other. When ultrasound catches the umbilical cord in cross section, the three vessels resemble Mickey Mouse's well-known head. The larger blood vessel carries oxygen and nutrients from the placenta to the baby, and the two smaller vessels carry back the baby's waste products. Supporting the three blood vessels is a jellylike substance that makes them able to resist pressure. This allows blood to continue to flow through the cord even if there is some compression from the baby lying on it. Sometimes an umbilical cord will have only two blood vessels. This usually is a normal variation, but your practitioner or pediatrician may decide to look for other associated findings, such as problems with the way the baby's urinary tract is developing. Umbilical cords typically are between one and three feet long. Cords that run on the shorter side sometimes prevent the baby's descent during delivery. Cords on the long side are more likely to get tangled or wrapped around the baby and can prevent vaginal delivery. There is no way to tell before the baby is born, however, how long the umbilical cord will be. After delivery, the umbilical cord will be clamped and cut, since the baby no longer needs his mother's help in getting food and air. (Cutting the cord hurts neither the mother nor the baby.) Once blood stops flowing through the umbilical cord, the placenta detaches from the uterus and is delivered as well. The end of the umbilical cord attached to your baby eventually will dry up and fall off. Contrary to rumor, a belly button's appearance is not influenced by the way the umbilical cord is tied off. Every cord falls off naturally at its base, not where the tie or clamp is placed, and the site results in an innie or an outtie belly button.
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