Oh! Baby!

One of the many strange and fascinating things about your baby is the umbilical cord. On a newly born baby, it's a hard, white, rubbery tube right at baby's diaper line. For a day or so after birth, it still has a clamp in place. What are you supposed to do with this thing??!!
Yeah, it looks a little "gross", but consider that the umbilical cord has been providing your baby with all of the nutrition and oxygen she needed all this time! Plus within weeks it will produce a very cute little belly button.

There are varying schools of thought on cleaning the newborn's cord. For a long time, hospitals used a blue dye to help speed drying and prevent infection. Several years ago, most changed to rubbing alcohol for cleaning. Currently, many physicians feel that cleaning the umbilical cord with water will produce the same desired effect. As the days pass, the cord will become darker in color, and hard. No matter what you use to clean baby's cord with, there are a few simple things to keep in mind:

~It's most important to clean the cord at the base, where it attaches to the skin of the abdomen. ~It's not unusual for a drying cord to ooze a small amount of yellow drainage, or even a little bit of blood.
~If there is a foul odor, or an increase in drainage, notify your pediatrician.
~If there is active bleeding, call your pediatrician. (remember, it will ooze a small amount of blood)
~Don't submerge baby in water until after the cord has fallen off AND healed, usually about 3 weeks.
~You will need to keep the baby's diaper folded down away from the area to prevent irritation. ~Take care when changing clothing, make sure the hardned cord doesn't get caught while removing clothes.

There is a practice referred to as "Lotus Birth", in which the cord is NOT cut, leaving baby attached to the placenta, until it separates naturally. You can learn more about that here.