Lotus Birth

[WhaleOilBeefHooked]

I read a surprisingly positive article regarding homebirth in the Mail on Sunday supplement yesterday. I think the author was a midwife and she mentioned how Lotus Births are becoming increasingly common. I'd never heard of it; its when the umbilical cord isn't clamped so the placenta remains attached to the baby until it naturally detaches. Amongst other things it guarantees that the baby recieves the optimal and specific blood volume required.

Reading about it, it makes sense, but I don't think it's something that I'd want to do. Anyone ever done it, or thought about it or witnessed it?

I think some of my mws already thought I was a bit if a 'hippy' for wanting a drug-free home water birth. I can't imagine the kind of reaction I would have had if I'd also wanted a lotus birth!

It's interesting though.

each to their own but is it not a bit like carrying around an amputated limb until it naturally decomposes?
at least no one else would want to hold or even visit the new baby.

I think one of the listed benefits is that visitors will stay away and not want to hold the baby for a few days.

Whatever keep the mil away!

You can opt to have a natural 3rd stage to ensure all the blood meant for the baby gets there (maternal health allowing) but having read around lotus births, it sounds like not enough consideration is given to the massive risk of infection you expose the baby to from carrying a dead organ around with you. I am of the long skirt and sandal persuasion but think lotus births are strange and fly in the face of a lot of obvious facts.

Obviously, you could just tell people that's waht you're doing to ensure a restful babymoon!

another vote for the 'this is going TOO far' opinion, as pootle says, you can have a natural 3rd stage without doing this...I don't think animals do this, do they?
(a rhetorical q )

In other mammals the placenta is detached by the mother after birth, often it is eaten.

So if you want natural eat it (raw please, no pate) or chew it off - or like pootle says go for a natural 3rd stage, then get rid.

I wonder how herbivourous mammals digest it?
you wouldn't think they had the right enzymes.

no thanks!

It doesn't make any sense at all. It makes sense to not cut the cord until it has stopped pulsating so the baby gets the maximum blood.

It is not natural in any way.

I read the same article and thought it was load of drivel. Yes she was positive about homebirth but she didn't seem to me to be represent average Joe homebirthers. Hers seemed to be stories of upper middle class older yummy mummy types and she was very snooty and scornful of those who do not fall into the aforementioned category.

Disclaimer : I read the MoS at my mothers, it was either that or watch 6hrs of Sky Sports . I am not proud.

I've never had or witnessed a lotus birth, but I've read a few accounts by MWs with experience and my understanding was that the placenta and cord tend to dry out rather than decompose (especially if treated with herbs and/or salt), that the cord tends to detach from the baby quicker than the cord stub after a cord is cut, and that there is less risk of infection as there is no open wound.

Whether or not all of that is correct I don't know, but it did make me think that maybe my preconceptions (it would go as manky/smelly as DD's cord stub did but on a larger scale) were incorrect. Not sure I'd ever do it personally, but I wouldn't say the conecpt revolted me.

I'm suprised that something practiced by a small minority with minimal impact outside the immediate family circle seems to raise such strong feelings.

I've just been on an ante-natal day with my midwives, and they mentioned this as a common practice in some cultures. The placenta is put in a bag of salt to keep it from going grim (technical term), until the whole thing drops off. My midwives are pretty open minded, but even so, we all agreed it might be a bit impractical to cart around a bag full of placenta as well as a baby!

I think it was done more for cultural/religious reasons than for health really, and as wb says above, all other mammals apart from us eat the placenta straight away which would seem to support the notion that there isn't any health reason for leaving it attached. I agree that most of the benefit (if there is any) can be gained by leaving the cord to stop pulsating before cutting. If you want to cook up the placenta then, feel free, but not me I'm afraid!. But heh, each to their own (meant to be v good for preventing PND by the way)

Yuck.

Loving all the admissions of sandal-and-long-skirt-ism and lentil weavery on this thread, though