"Lotus birth"

Have you ever heard of a "Lotus birth"? This is something I recently learned about. I first came across this while reading the book "Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering" by Sarah Buckley, MD. I was reading a section on delayed cord clamping and there was a personal story about a family deciding to have a "Lotus birth".


What is a Lotus birth? "Lotus birth, or umbilical nonseverance, is the practice of leaving the umbilical cord attached to both the baby and the placenta following birth, without clamping or severing, and allowing the cord the time to detach from the baby naturally. In this way the baby, cord and placenta are treated as a single unit until detachment occurs, generally two to three days after birth." (Wikipedia) But I've heard it can be up to 10 days.

Lotus birth is popular among many religions and cultures around the world, inlcuding Balinese. There's even a verse in the bible pertaining to the uncut cord (Ezekiel 16:4).


At first, I thought this practice was way "out there" and strange. Seriously people? Why would you really want to take care of a placenta for days after the birth? After my son Tucker's birth, I remember being extremely overwhelmed just taking care of a newborn, and to take care of a placenta as well??!! Yikes.


Also, I had already learned about delayed cord clamping and the benefits, months before Tucker was born. I knew I wanted delayed cord clamping with his birth, but unfortunately had to compromise this because of the hospital's protocol. They did allow it to be delayed a couple minutes, because I wanted Tucker immediately on my chest after he was born. I didn't realize there was even further less intervention methods involving the cord and placenta. As I read on, I began to understand the reasoning and benefits of this practice.


It is believed that by allowing the cord and placenta to stay attached to the baby, or just waiting more than an hour after the baby's birth, results in a quicker cord stump healing, with an average of only one week for detachment of the stump. Also, it has been observed that lotus babies are less stressed and more peaceful. They also tend to not have the "normal"1lb newborn weight loss and jaundice within the first few days after birth. There are many other benefits and beliefs; these are just a few.


So why do obstetricians cut the cord within minutes of the birth? It's referred to as "active management".


Here's the protocol: Immediately after the baby is born, they will inject some kind of oxytocic drug in the mother's body to increase contractions, cut the cord with in 1-5min of the baby's birth (if not immediately) and then pull out the placenta by tugging on the cord rather than naturally letting the placenta come on it's own. Hmm...and then they wonder why sometimes the mother has excess bleeding?


Anyway, most physicians  believe that if babies receive their full blood volume from the placenta they will have too many red blood cells (polycythemia) and become jaundice. Also, it's extremely convenient for the "ideals" of a hospital. Cutting the cord right away allows staff to get on with other routine postpartum practices. Tick tock, tick tock...Despite popular medical opinion, research favors delayed cord clamping and has not found a significant association with the preventive jaundice treatment.


There is much to learn about delayed cord clamping and Lotus birth. I encourage you to inform yourself as much as possible. After reading up on lotus birth, I casually told Zach(my husband) about it. He says to me in a positive and interested tone of voice:

"Are we going to do that". I was like, "That was not the response I was expecting!" Haha. Although, a Lotus birth is very intriguing and natural, we have decided that it's not for us. However, I would like to keep the cord attached to the baby until it at least stops pulsating. Maybe even up to an hour after the birth. This would allow an extra flow of nutrients to the baby. We'll see!

What do you think? Would you ever consider having a lotus birth?