Cord Blood Stem Cells Information

First child births ever..how did they know to cut the umbilical cord??

Ok so mainly- my Q is - way way way back when mothers were FIRST giving birth to their children, how did they know to cut the umbilical cords? I mean I don't know about you, but if I was giving birth to this little tiny lifeform, and I see this cord connecting it to me, obviously it's sustaing life from it, I wouldn't want to cut it. So how did this practice develop, of cutting the cords WAY way back?? Thanks.

Public Comments

1. Well probably when the sac came out they figured that he kid didn't need it anymore so they cut it off. Good quesion though.
2. Who would want to drap their baby around on the ground. Besides the placenta natuarlly tries to come out.
3. It is instinct. Animals cut the umbilical cords after birth. (Usually by biting.) Our distant ancestors probably still had enough instinct to know to cut it as well. Or they saw that the dogs and bears and cats were all doing the same thing, so they got the idea.
4. I'm sure they figured SOMETHING must be done with it. You can't have a child growing up connected to its mother.
5. Well: The first birth was depending on your views from God: in which case God said: you should prolly cut that or from Monkeys: Reason said: maybe if the child ever wants to walk like me, we should get rid of that cord other than that the cord eventually withers away leaving the body, so that's prolly what happened: it just fell off.
6. The baby was born, the umbilical cord still intact, then the placenta came. They would carry the baby, the placenta for days, but, the placenta AND the cord would begin to dry up, become a sort of annoyance. Soon, they realized that it wasnt' needed. So....they would snip the cord as it dried up. End of story.
7. Probably, it was because the baby couldn't stay attached to the cord and live and grow healthily....Or maybe it was the thought of a cord that isn't supposed to be there hanging out of a woman....
8. Have you ever seen a placenta? They probably thought it was a liver or part of a deformed brain or something and cut it off and got rid of it fast.LOL. That thing is ugly.
9. wow that's a good question lol. my guess would be that its natural, and they just knew to do it, kind like me just know how to breath and all that other natural stuff
10. The cord and placenta will detach by themselves if left alone, there are some hardcore natural birth proponents, and certain cultures, that practise what is called "lotus birth" which involves leaving the cord and placenta intact until they detach by themselves. My guess is that with the first childbirths, the cords came off by themselves and somewhere a long the way people discovered that it was fairly safe to sever it manually. Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_Birth