At 09:47 PM 1/4/99 -0500, you wrote:
>Nancy asked :
>"Kathy D : is there any cross cultural or historic data on cord cutting
>rituals?"
>
>To add to this, as an intern I asked an OB how primative (prehistory)
>cultures knew to cut the umbilical cord. He didn't know.
>Do you Kathy?
>-Rob
>
Rob,
        I can't give you an historical or anthropoligical explanation, but if
you've ever watched other mammals birth, they DO cut the cord.  For example
in whelping puppies (and queening kittens), the dam (or queen) first
(ideally) bites open the amniotic sac over the nose and mouth of the whelp
and vigorously licks the puppy or kitten (to stimulate breathing and
circulation) while consuming the sac and placenta.  She cuts the cord by
biting.  This takes all of about a minute in real time.  I had a cocker
bitch that would bite the cord too short, so we had to jump right in and
clamp and cut before she did.  By the way, the incisors that the dog uses
to bite the cord tend are fairly blunt and tend to crush it like a hemostat
so there is very little bleeding.

Pauli Loeffler, who prior to the birth of child number three used to breed
and show cocker spaniels.