I understand a babies umbilical cord goes from the placenta to the babies belly button, but where does it go from there inside the baby? Is it connected to the stomach? Or just veins and arteries?
In: Biology
It’s basically connected only to veins.
The oxygenated blood from the umbilicus comes through a vein in the liver then to the heart. This lets the liver “look at” the blood and do any chemical processing if need be.
The oxygenated blood goes through the heart, through the arteries, comes back through the veins.
Blood returns through common iliac veins, which is basically the veins for your legs as they come up in the belly. These iliac veins have a couple offshoots going back to the umbilicus with de-oxygenated blood. The rest of the blood proceeds back to the heart alongside oxygenated blood, they mix together.
These, along with other blood flow routes, close off soon after you’re born, but remain as ligaments. These ligaments don’t carry blood but are interesting to anatomists and surgeons for their developmental history.
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