Since the 1950s, it has been standard practice for doctors and midwifes to clamp the umbilical cord within seconds of a baby being born.
This was done to stop the hormonal injection — given to the mother to stop hemorrhaging — seeping into the baby’s bloodstream and causing health issues.
However the drug has since been replaced with a safer alternative, leading midwife Amanda Burleigh to question whether shutting off the blood supply from the placenta so early was necessary.
With help from her fellow medics, she decided to conduct some research into the subject - and soon discovered that cutting the umbilical cord when it was still visibly pulsating with blood was actually bad for the baby.
Doing so, she said, could deprive the newborn of a third of its blood stock and increase the risk of iron deficiency anaemia, which is linked to cognitive learning delays.
Amanda told The Telegraph: "I couldn't sit back and ignore what I had seen when it became visible to me. Because if we see something that's wrong, we have to change it.“
Despite a lot of criticism from medical professionals, Amanda campaigned to have the protocol on umbilical cords changed - and, after a decade, she has now finally succeeded in her mission.
The new best practice is that doctors and midwives should not cut the cord any “earlier than one minute from the birth of the baby."
It has even been suggested that waiting from one to five minutes post-birth is fine - or, with the mother’s consent, doctors and midwifes can wait even longer.
This might not seem like much of an increase in time, but, to a newborn baby, every single second counts.
Dubbing the new guidelines as “common sense”, Amanda added: “I think we'll look back in years to come and realise that immediate cord clamping was not a good idea.
"I want to make sure it becomes the norm here but it's also my job to support my colleagues in other countries.
"Britain leads the way and others will follow. I'm supporting midwives in Australia, Norway, Sweden, Pakistan, Tunisia, Israel, Turkey and more. What I really want now is global change."
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