Infant Anemia
		Windle (1940) presented a paper at the Round Table Discussion on Anemias of Infancy as part of the tenth annual American Academy of Pediatrics.  In his talk Windle began by summarizing research on development of red blood cells, which begins in the wall of the embryonic yolk sac.  Blood vessels begin to form during the fifth week, and after sufficient development of the liver, blood cell formation becomes one of its primary functions for the fetus until the spleen and bone marrow mature and are able to produce blood cells.
			How essential oxygen delivery is, that red cells, blood vessels, and circulation powered by the fetal heart (the earliest functioning organ) follow such an elegant plan.
				Windle continued with a detailed description of how oxygen is transferred across the placenta, and how fetal hemoglobin is designed to readily take up oxygen at low partial pressures on the maternal side of the placenta, again emphasizing the importance of maintaining full aerobic activity. Placental blood is fully part of the fetal circulatory system, and found by many investigators to contain one-fifth to one-fourth of the total fetal blood at birth.   Windle pointed out that this placental blood does not pass into the infant at birth until uterine contractions have a chance to compress the placenta, and he stated:
					"... The rather common practice of promptly clamping the cord at birth should be condemned.  Of course, this will make it imposible to salvage placental blood for 'blood banks.'  However, the collection of usable quantities of placental blood robs the newborn infant of blood which belongs to him and which he retrieves under natural conditions...  Immediate clamping of the cord is comparable to submitting the infant to a rather severe hemorrhage." Windle 1940, p546.