From cordclamping.com and
In the February 2002 edition of OBSTETRICS & GYNECOLOGY, ACOG quietly announced, in very small print on a back page (361), that Bulletin 216 has been withdrawn from circulation. ACOG Educational Bulletin 216 was published in 1995 and recommended immediate umbilical cord clamping to obtain an arterial pH. Due to the ACOG's continued inability to prove that early cord clamping does not violate the first tenet of the Hippocratic oath, "First, do no harm", they decided to quietly retire this idea.
No fanfare, no "recall notices" sent to practicing OB's (beyond the notice in the February 2002 journal), just ~POOF~ we don't teach that anymore.
But thousands of practicing doctors out there still do it.
So now, in case it isn't clear yet:
Immediate cord clamping is no longer officially sanctioned as an ACOG standard of care (although the Canadian college hasn't caught up yet...).
Any person who clamps the cord before the placenta is delivered must have sound, documented, clinical justification for doing so.
Any person who clamps the cord immediately or prematurely without indication is individually responsible and liable for the resulting injuries.
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