Reproductive Science Essay

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Introduction

Reproductive science has changed the lives of women and helped to restructure society in general, because it changes the roles that sex and parenthood play, by disassociating the two. Without reproductive technology, the role of women has typically been limited to bearing children, which then extended to rearing them. Reproductive technology has allowed women to be more selective about when and how they have children. As women gained social power from this freedom, they have extended this social power into a number of other spheres, creating substantial shifts in most societies with regards to things like gender equality (Sherwin, 2001). This shift is ongoing. Whether a new reproductive technology changes this dynamic further would be dependent on whether it functions in some way as to provide a benefit that existing technologies do not have. Society as a whole changes because falling birth rates disrupt the typical patterns of development, though these are occurring simultaneous to dramatic changes in health care that extend lives; society has had to adapt quickly to these changes in the general social structure. This paper will look at delayed cord clamping to analyze its impacts and costs to both women and society.

What Is Delayed Cord Clamping?

The American Pregnancy Association (2018) defines delayed cord clamping as “the prolongation of the time between the delivery of a newborn and the clamping of the umbilical cord.” Without the delay, the cord can be clamped almost immediately. Delayed cord clamping can be between 1-3 minutes after delivery, or even leaving the umbilical cord until it stops pumping. This technique is in line with World Health Organization recommendations and is becoming increasingly popular (APA, 2018).

There are no costs associated with this new concept. The existing clamping technology will be utilized, the only change here is that it will be done at a point in time a little later on. It will not cost any more to do it at that point, and the technique appears to create no extra burdens.

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The risks that exist are minor, and some of them have yet to be definitively. The technique therefore does not add cost to the giving birth procedure.

Risks and Benefits to the Mother

The logic of delayed cord clamping (DCC) is that it will increase the flow of blood to the baby, thereby increasing the newborn’s iron storage, said to be healthy for brain development (APA, 2018). This practice was normal for preterm infants, but in this case it is now becoming more common for full-term babies as well. This is because the higher rate of placental transfusion is beneficial for brain development. Further, there is a decrease risk of anemia caused by iron deficiency with DCC. Anemia at birth carries with it known risks such as cognitive impairment and central nervous system problems (APA, 2018).

There are three risks with DCC, however, and these should also be understood. The first risk is that of polycythemia, which is when there is an excess of red blood cells in circulation. This carries with it risks associated with breathing, and with circulation. A second risk associated with DCC is hyperbilirubinemia.

Hyperbilirubinemia is with bilirubin levels in the blood are too high. Basically, after birth the baby’s liver takes care of bilirubin, and inability to handle it can cause jaundice. This is also a risk with hyperbilirubinemia (APA, 2018). This risk is more hypothetical than it is documented at this point in time, however. More studies are required to demonstrate whether this risk is provable or….....

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