The Biblical Cord

There are a lot of really funny things about being a doctor. No, seriously, there are. One of the funniest is the way some patients mispronounce or misinterpret medical terms. I'm really not trying to be disrespectful or make fun, but come on, sometimes it's just plain funny. We have one patient, who, when her asthma acts up, calls to request an "al-booty-trol" refill (albuterol). Patients tell us about the "fireballs in my Eucharist" (fibroids in my uterus). There are more examples, but I'll stop.

The one mispronunciation/misinterpretation, though, that I actually prefer to the correct term is "Biblical cord." What a great term to describe something (pregnancy) that really is a miracle.

A normal "Biblical cord" has 3 blood vessels in it. There are 2 arteries, which are very small and thick-walled, and one vein, which is larger and has thinner, more flexible walls. All the vessels are enclosed, protected, in thick white tissue which is called Wharton's jelly. A perfect umbilical cord is thick and uniformly spirally coiled. Every time I see a normal umbilical cord, I think how perfect and beautiful it is. It is also, as are most things in nature, perfectly designed to do its job. The vein takes oxygenated, nutrient-filled blood from the placenta to the baby. The arteries take the deoxygenated, "used-up" blood back from the baby to the placenta, where it circulates through the placenta, is oxygenated, and then flows back to the baby through the vein. At birth, after the umbilical cord is clamped and cut, these vessels close up fairly quickly. Neonatologists often utilize the vessels, particularly the larger umbilical vein, to place IVs to give sick or preterm babies fluids and medications, but the IVs have to be placed fairly quickly after birth, before the vessels close.

I had really never thought about the fact that the closing of these vessels must leave a small scar. My girls all have "innies," as do I, so I don't know that I'd ever paid attention to the inside of a belly button. Mr Jinjin, however, has an "outie," and I noticed the other day that he has 3 small marks in the inner aspect of his belly button. These must be the scars from the closing of his umbilical vessels soon after his birth.

This was sort of a revelation to me. Despite all my years of medical training, it had never once occurred to me that the closing of these vessels leaves a scar, and I just love this fact. Three marks that prove you were born, that are visible proof that you were once connected to another person. And especially for Charlie, who has no conscious memory of his birth mother and whose parents don't really have any specific knowledge of her to share with him, I sort of find poignancy in knowing he bears these marks of his connection to her.

(I'm also laughing now, imagining that everyone (like all 4 of you) who read this post will now go look at every belly button in your household to see if you can see these scars...)