Umbilical Cord Management at Birth

800,000 newborns die every year because they do not breath well after birth. If an infant does not breath, current guidelines recommend immediately cutting the umbilical cord, so the infant can be moved to a resuscitation platform, where clinicians push air into the newborn’s lung to provide oxygen. For months, the placenta serves as the fetal "lung" providing oxygen to the growing fetus and is still available to serve as the newborn's "third lung" immediately after birth. This thesis attempts to understand if helping a newborn breath prior to cutting the umbilical cord results in a safer birth.