评论
打印
CHILDHOOD anaemia is a problem. Around the world, almost a quarter of under-fives suffer from it. And anaemia is not a trivial thing. A child's development, both physical and mental, is stifled by a lack of iron. The reason is that, besides its well-known role in haemoglobin, the oxygen-transporting molecule in the blood, iron is also involved in many aspects of brain development.
儿童贫血是个问题。全世界四分之一五岁以下的儿童都患有这种病。贫血可不是件小事。缺铁会阻碍儿童的身体和智力上的发育。原因在于，除了铁在血红蛋白（血液中运输氧气的颗粒）中的重要性，大脑发育的很多方面都需要铁。
A study just published in the British Medical Journal by Ola Andersson, an obstetrician at the Hospital of Halland in Halmstad, Sweden, suggests that a simple change of medical procedure when a child is born may bring a big reduction in anaemia. That change is not to cut the umbilical cord linking the child with the placenta straight after birth—as is standard practice—but, rather, to give it time to transfer more of the placenta's contents (particularly its blood) to the child it has been nurturing.
《英国医疗期刊》发表了一份瑞典哈尔姆斯塔德哈兰省医院的一位产科医师 Ola Andersson的研究。该研究显示，当婴儿出生时，只要做一个小小的医疗程序的改变就能够大幅减少贫血的发生。这个小改变就是在，在胎儿分娩后，不要按照标准的医疗程序立刻剪断脐带，而给点时间让脐带能够继续将一直滋养着婴儿的胎盘内容物（特别是血液）传输到婴儿体内。
The argument in favour of rapid clamping is that too much blood may flow from the detached placenta to the newly born child, and that this can cause problems of its own. But that is unproven, and would be a strike against evolution because, in nature, the umbilicus of a mammal usually does remain attached to the infant for some time after birth. Only the modern technology of clamps and sharp scissors permits the slithery tube to be dealt with at speed.
快速剪断脐带的论据是如果不这么做的话，会有过多血液从母亲体内流到新生儿体内，而这会引发母亲的毛病。但是，这个论据是未经证实的，而且也有违进化论。因为，自然中，普通动物在分娩后，脐带还会与婴儿连接一段时间。只是产钳和剪刀的现代技术使得脐带能够被迅速剪断而已。
To test her idea that extended post partum connection to the placenta is good for a child's health, Dr Andersson and her colleagues recruited 334 pregnant, non-smoking women whose fetuses appeared to be healthy. When these women came to term, their midwives followed one of two sets of instructions, chosen at random and given to them just before each birth. In 166 cases the newborns had their umbilical cords clamped within ten seconds of delivery. The other 168 had them clamped after at least three minutes had passed.
为了测试他延长与胎盘连接时间对婴儿健康有好处的想法，安德森医生和同事招募了334名产妇。这些产妇都不吸烟，她们体内的胎儿也很健康。当这些孕妇分娩时，她们的助产士随机进行这两种不同的分娩程序。166位新生儿在出生后的十秒钟就被剪断了脐带。而其他的168位新生儿在出生后三分钟之后才被剪断脐带。
When the children were four months old, Dr Andersson re-examined them and took a blood sample. Those babies whose umbilical clamps had been applied after three minutes had, on average, iron levels 45% higher than those whose cords had been clamped immediately. Put another way, only 0.6% of them were anaemic, compared with 5.7% of the rapidly clamped.
当这些婴儿四个月大时，安德森医生对他们再做了一次检查并取了血样。那些分娩三分钟后才被剪断脐带的婴儿体内的铁含量平均比那些一分娩就被剪断脐带的婴儿高45%。换句话说，前者只有0.6%的贫血，后者则有5.7%。
Rapid clamping of the umbilicus, then, seems to cause one child in 20 to become anaemic, at least in the early months of its life. Any experiment of this sort needs to be repeated, of course, to check it is correct. But if it is, then the burden of proof in the matter of when to cut the cord will have shifted from those who would cut late to those who would cut early. The cost of doing so would seem negligible; the benefit, great.
快速剪断脐带好像会导致5%的儿童至少在年少时贫血。当然，我们还需要重复进行这种实验来验证他是否正确。但是如果这个理论是正确的话，那么关于何时剪断脐带的举证责任将会从那些很晚之后才剪断脐带的人转移到那些很早就剪断脐带的人们身上。这么做的代价微乎其微，而益处却多多。
