It's amazing how many women don't know what the umbilical cord does. When I was pregnanct, it was explained to me that the umbilical cord "died" and my son lived off his own reserves for three weeks. He lost 1 1/2 pounds in the womb, was three weeks early and within a day or two of being stillborn. Very scary. More scary was that I was a high risk pregnancy and having what I thought was very closemonitoring, however, they weren't comparing the specialized ultrasounds I was receivjng on a weekly basis to notice he was getting smaller (and weaker) It wasn't until after I delivered (be emergency c-section) that they went back and reviewed. BY the grace of God, my son is perfectly heatlhy.