LOTUS BIRTH
(lightly adapted from Sacred Birthing: Birthing a New Humanity -Sunni Karl)
To delve into a choice like Lotus Birth, we might consider how each of us is inherently a whole being, part of the vast ocean of Oneness. We are being called to birthing ways that support the innate divinity of our babies. One way to protect their inherent Oneness is a Lotus Birth. Some parents may be drawn to the idea and feel it's significance.
"The first step toward a Lotus Birth is to allow the cord to stop pulsing before cutting it."
Incredible transformations take place in the body of the baby as she moves from being a water baby into an air world. When baby opens her eyes for the first time, all eyes and hearts satisfy their longing that all is well. Mother has relaxing hormones and love hormones coursing through her body. Her relief speaks to her hormones, who speak directly to the placenta, as if saying, “Your baby is safe and well.” With this sacred knowledge, she relaxes, the placenta finishes its work, lets go,and the placenta is then ready for its own birth. It is not necessary to hear the baby scream that often accompanies the cutting of the cord. Usually, within a few minutes, the cord starts to offer less oxygen and gently encourages her in naturally breathing on her own.
Lotus Birth goes a step further and is not cutting the cord at all. Lotus Birth gently softens the birth experience and much like water birth, there seem to be only positive effects of Lotus Birth on a baby and her family. Keeping the cord in tact means that baby and placenta stay on the altar of the family bed, visited only by the closest of family and friends. This keeps baby in the security of the family and slows down the pace of life. A mother does little more than go to the bathroom anyway in the first days after birth. As the cord is kicked off, baby is gently showed around the house and maybe to a few close friends. In appropriate timing, baby is taken outside and introduced to the stars and moon, sun and rain. These first few days set into the mind of parents that life happens in perfect timing, according to baby’s readiness. By watching baby’s reaction, parents do the right thing at the right time and encourage baby to grow in her own timing.
When people hear about Lotus Birth it seems to create a response. Most are fascinated at hearing something so out of the ordinary. Consider it with openness and see how this feels to entertain it for your baby. Understanding its benefits and wishing them for your baby makes the decision easy. Would you like your baby to experience these gifts? If so, the logistics will easily fall into place. Ask your baby before labor and decide if lotus birth is her path. It takes this commitment to make the care hassle-free. This advance commitment seems to be felt by your baby as a high level of security when taking in her first breaths. Keeping the cord in tact allows the baby to hold her full vitality and radiance.
For babies to be born to parents who honor them with a Lotus Birth means that as a generation, we are completing this era of separation and moving into Oneness. The babies being born do not need to experience separation as their core issue, as so many of us parents have had to, and so, they draw to them a different birth.
Another gift of the placenta is on the energetic level. During pregnancy, the exchange from placenta to baby and back to mother is physical, through the blood, veins and artery. After birth, the exchange gifted between placenta and baby is no longer physical, but energetic.
Spiritually, the baby and placenta are one. They were created out of the same genetic material and grew as one, encapsulated within one aura, the energy field that surrounds the body. The aura is the energetic first line of defense for the immune system and vibrates baby’s level of vitality, guarding her innate health that you have helped create and protect during pregnancy. With spiritual sight at the time of birth, the newborn and placenta are within an egg of light, still protected as if by an energetic womb. When the umbilical cord is cut at birth and the placenta is removed, half of the aura is suddenly gone. This looks like a torn bubble whose edges are flapping openly around the baby, offering no protection.
If this is a healthy, hearty baby, a hole in the aura is repaired in about three days and uses a great deal of baby’s vitality to complete. If this is a baby who has been compromised by interventions in pregnancy, a traumatic birth, or whose health has been neglected by lifestyle practices of mother or father, the extra energy to repair this energetic tear in the aura takes much longer. Thus, baby is open to immediate health difficulties like digestive problems, colic, colds, tummy aches and gas. At a time when baby’s health and digestion is in need of all the support available, energy is being used instead to repair the aura. The first food goes through the system poorly digested and sets a pattern for life.
The placenta and cord, although physically non-functional, are energetically very active for about two to three days after the birth. The placenta modulates the baby’s energy as she stabilizes in the world. There is a gentle energetic pulsation that soothes and replicates the familiar physical pulse of mother.
CARING FOR THE PLACENTA IN LOTUS BIRTH
The placenta may be drained through a colander/strainer into a bowl. When this process is finished it can be patted dry and rubbed with coarse sea salt and powdered rosemary or other combinations of herbs such as lavender flowers and cedar powder, etc. Then it is allowed to dry naturally in the open air, only lightly covered with a muslin cloth. At night time it can be wrapped up up in a few towels, and a plastic bag, tucked it into a placenta bag like the one used in this picture (made of silk) and put next to the baby.
The cord dries stiff, and it is interesting how quickly it really dries out! So this means you need to be careful about how you position the cord when it is drying so that you can easily move the placenta about when you are changing or dressing baby. I believe you can soak the cord in water for a while to soften and reposition it when it is drying. The salt, herbs, etc. can be reapplied each day to the placenta. There shouldn't be any foul odors, and if there are you can check the belly button to be sure it isn't coming from there. If the belly button has an odor, it could indicate a possible infection which can also be treated naturally, just ask your midwife or birth attendant.
After a few days in its own perfect timing, the cord will separate from the umbilical opening all on its own; usually in three to five days. The placenta at that point can be handled as per your faith tradition- some possibilities are giving it to the earth in the form of burial, burned, or made into homeopathic medicine or tincture. It can also be frozen until you decide how you would like to take care of it.
(lightly adapted from Sacred Birthing: Birthing a New Humanity -Sunni Karl)
To delve into a choice like Lotus Birth, we might consider how each of us is inherently a whole being, part of the vast ocean of Oneness. We are being called to birthing ways that support the innate divinity of our babies. One way to protect their inherent Oneness is a Lotus Birth. Some parents may be drawn to the idea and feel it's significance.
"The first step toward a Lotus Birth is to allow the cord to stop pulsing before cutting it."
Incredible transformations take place in the body of the baby as she moves from being a water baby into an air world. When baby opens her eyes for the first time, all eyes and hearts satisfy their longing that all is well. Mother has relaxing hormones and love hormones coursing through her body. Her relief speaks to her hormones, who speak directly to the placenta, as if saying, “Your baby is safe and well.” With this sacred knowledge, she relaxes, the placenta finishes its work, lets go,and the placenta is then ready for its own birth. It is not necessary to hear the baby scream that often accompanies the cutting of the cord. Usually, within a few minutes, the cord starts to offer less oxygen and gently encourages her in naturally breathing on her own.
Lotus Birth goes a step further and is not cutting the cord at all. Lotus Birth gently softens the birth experience and much like water birth, there seem to be only positive effects of Lotus Birth on a baby and her family. Keeping the cord in tact means that baby and placenta stay on the altar of the family bed, visited only by the closest of family and friends. This keeps baby in the security of the family and slows down the pace of life. A mother does little more than go to the bathroom anyway in the first days after birth. As the cord is kicked off, baby is gently showed around the house and maybe to a few close friends. In appropriate timing, baby is taken outside and introduced to the stars and moon, sun and rain. These first few days set into the mind of parents that life happens in perfect timing, according to baby’s readiness. By watching baby’s reaction, parents do the right thing at the right time and encourage baby to grow in her own timing.
When people hear about Lotus Birth it seems to create a response. Most are fascinated at hearing something so out of the ordinary. Consider it with openness and see how this feels to entertain it for your baby. Understanding its benefits and wishing them for your baby makes the decision easy. Would you like your baby to experience these gifts? If so, the logistics will easily fall into place. Ask your baby before labor and decide if lotus birth is her path. It takes this commitment to make the care hassle-free. This advance commitment seems to be felt by your baby as a high level of security when taking in her first breaths. Keeping the cord in tact allows the baby to hold her full vitality and radiance.
For babies to be born to parents who honor them with a Lotus Birth means that as a generation, we are completing this era of separation and moving into Oneness. The babies being born do not need to experience separation as their core issue, as so many of us parents have had to, and so, they draw to them a different birth.
Another gift of the placenta is on the energetic level. During pregnancy, the exchange from placenta to baby and back to mother is physical, through the blood, veins and artery. After birth, the exchange gifted between placenta and baby is no longer physical, but energetic.
Spiritually, the baby and placenta are one. They were created out of the same genetic material and grew as one, encapsulated within one aura, the energy field that surrounds the body. The aura is the energetic first line of defense for the immune system and vibrates baby’s level of vitality, guarding her innate health that you have helped create and protect during pregnancy. With spiritual sight at the time of birth, the newborn and placenta are within an egg of light, still protected as if by an energetic womb. When the umbilical cord is cut at birth and the placenta is removed, half of the aura is suddenly gone. This looks like a torn bubble whose edges are flapping openly around the baby, offering no protection.
If this is a healthy, hearty baby, a hole in the aura is repaired in about three days and uses a great deal of baby’s vitality to complete. If this is a baby who has been compromised by interventions in pregnancy, a traumatic birth, or whose health has been neglected by lifestyle practices of mother or father, the extra energy to repair this energetic tear in the aura takes much longer. Thus, baby is open to immediate health difficulties like digestive problems, colic, colds, tummy aches and gas. At a time when baby’s health and digestion is in need of all the support available, energy is being used instead to repair the aura. The first food goes through the system poorly digested and sets a pattern for life.
The placenta and cord, although physically non-functional, are energetically very active for about two to three days after the birth. The placenta modulates the baby’s energy as she stabilizes in the world. There is a gentle energetic pulsation that soothes and replicates the familiar physical pulse of mother.
CARING FOR THE PLACENTA IN LOTUS BIRTH
The placenta may be drained through a colander/strainer into a bowl. When this process is finished it can be patted dry and rubbed with coarse sea salt and powdered rosemary or other combinations of herbs such as lavender flowers and cedar powder, etc. Then it is allowed to dry naturally in the open air, only lightly covered with a muslin cloth. At night time it can be wrapped up up in a few towels, and a plastic bag, tucked it into a placenta bag like the one used in this picture (made of silk) and put next to the baby.
The cord dries stiff, and it is interesting how quickly it really dries out! So this means you need to be careful about how you position the cord when it is drying so that you can easily move the placenta about when you are changing or dressing baby. I believe you can soak the cord in water for a while to soften and reposition it when it is drying. The salt, herbs, etc. can be reapplied each day to the placenta. There shouldn't be any foul odors, and if there are you can check the belly button to be sure it isn't coming from there. If the belly button has an odor, it could indicate a possible infection which can also be treated naturally, just ask your midwife or birth attendant.
After a few days in its own perfect timing, the cord will separate from the umbilical opening all on its own; usually in three to five days. The placenta at that point can be handled as per your faith tradition- some possibilities are giving it to the earth in the form of burial, burned, or made into homeopathic medicine or tincture. It can also be frozen until you decide how you would like to take care of it.