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Cutting a baby’s umbilical cord 2 minutes later can improve development A new study has found that delaying cutting the umbilical cord by just two minute leads to better development of a baby during its first days of life. Usually, as soon as a child is born, the doctors quickly check that it’s healthy and breathing properly, and then, within seconds of birth, clamp its umbilical cord and cut it off, before handing it back to the mother. But a new study conducted by the University of Granada in Spain has shown that simply delaying that process by two minutes influences how resistant to oxidative stress newborns are. Oxidative stress is an imbalance between free radicals and the baby’s antioxidant defences, and it’s associated with triggering inflammation. In the research, scientists looked at a group of 64 healthy pregnant women who went into labour in the San Cecilio Clinical Hospital in Granada. They all had a normal pregnancy and spontaneous natural deliveries, but half of thei