Campaign : Amanda Burleigh has won her battle . A midwife has won a decade-long battle to give mothers more time attached to their newborns before the umbilical cord is cut . Amanda Burleigh was convinced that clamping the cord within seconds of delivery – shutting off the blood supply from the placenta – was wrong . Since the 1950s , when doctors and midwives started giving women a hormonal injection to reduce the risk of haemorrhage , they have clamped the cord within seconds of birth . They feared the drug – since replaced with a safer substitute – could harm the baby . But Ms Burleigh , a midwife at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust , believed it was unnatural to clamp the cord when it was still visibly pulsating with blood . She said : ‘ One day I had a brainwave and thought , “ We all clamp the cord within seconds of the baby being born , but we are doing it without any evidence about whether it ’ s good or bad for the baby. ” ' She contacted other medics , including obstetrician Dr David Hutchon , and together the group amassed evidence that stopping the blood flow so early could be harmful . One study showed immediate cord-clamping could deprive a baby of a third of its blood stock – enough to fill a medium-size wine glass . In particular , they found the practice raised the risk of iron deficiency anaemia . A tenth of all toddlers are anaemic , which is linked to delays in learning , speaking and understanding . There is also growing evidence that immediate cord-clamping can be particularly harmful for premature babies . They have finally succeeded in getting the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence ( NICE ) to change its guidelines . NICE now states that doctors and midwives should not routinely clamp the cord ‘ earlier than one minute from the birth of the baby ’ . The cord should be clamped within five minutes , but left longer if the mother requests . Besides the medical benefits , the change means mothers get the chance to hold their babies for a moment while still connected to them . Ms Burleigh , a midwife for 26 years , said she had to overcome persistent doubts from colleagues , who asked who she was to query medical protocol . ‘ There was quite a lot of resistance from both doctors and midwives , ’ she said . ‘ At times I felt like a whistleblower. ’ There is also growing evidence that immediate cord-clamping can be particularly harmful for premature babies . However , she said she felt a ‘ moral duty ’ to challenge a practice that was not grounded in evidence . Dr Hutchon , now retired , said hospitals had blindly clamped and cut within seconds of birth for decades . He said : ‘ We didn ’ t notice we were doing any harm because we were doing it to every baby. ’ He became interested in 2003 after hearing that more premature babies survived when the cord was not cut early . But he said there was ‘ continual resistance to change ’ – with some doctors refusing delayed cord-clamping even today . Some still believed the theory that immediate clamping reduced the risk of mothers haemorrhaging , Dr Hutchon said , even though a 2013 study found it made no difference . Ms Burleigh , recently named Midwife of the Year by the British Journal Of Midwifery , added : ‘ In 20 or 30 years I think we will look back on immediate cord-clamping and think , “ What were we doing ? We dropped an absolute clanger . '' ' A spokesman for NICE said that its advice on care during childbirth was reviewed ‘ at regular intervals ’ .
Amanda Burleigh was convinced clamping cord immediately was wrong . Contacted other medics and they amassed evidence it could be harmful . National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines have changed . Cord should n't be routinely clamped ‘ seconds from the birth '