The practice of mothers having a ‘lotus birth‘ is increasing in the western world. A lotus birth is a term taken from Buddhism that means holy, intact and ‘child’. It is the practice of having a natural birth and allowing the placenta to remain attached to the child until the cord naturally deteriorates and detaches itself. This natural process normally takes 2 to 5 days. The umbilical stump that is left after the cord is cut after a normal birth takes about 10 days to come off.

Dr Sarah Buckley, who is a GP, is a firm advocate of lotus birth. Out of her 4 children, 3 were by lotus birth. She said “The baby receives an extra 50-100ml of their own blood, known as the placental transfusion, which contains iron, red cells, stem cells and other nutrients, which will benefit the baby through the first year.”

BirthAnother exponent of lotus birth is natal hypnotherapist Gina Cox-Roberts, from Telford. After having her baby she said she felt the placenta was “As much a part of her (the baby) as her hands or her heart,” and that “The placenta and the child came from the same cell.”

Gina described her story, saying “We rinsed off the placenta so it was as clean as possible. We sprinkled sea salt over it - it’s a chunk of meat quite like liver and has the potential to go off. We had some lavender essential oil to drip on it too in case it got smelly, but it never did. We wrapped it in a terry nappy, and then wrapped the baby and the placenta up together in a sleeping bag. Every 12 hours we changed the nappy and added more salt. It worked fine.”

From the Royal College of Midwives, Mervi Jokinen suggested it may be possible to request this type of birth in a hospital. “The people who do this are happy to see the experience as a life event and a natural thing. It’s difficult to make a clinical comment on this because there are no studies.” The only caution Jokinen added was that “The placenta is a blood organ and bacteria can set in quickly with a blood organ.”

Source: healthypages.co.uk