By Lisa Schuring

What is Lotus Birth?
Leaving the baby with their umbilical cord and placenta still attached, until the cord dries and falls off by itself is called a Lotus Birth. This practice is also known as nonseverance. Some cultures and species that practise nonseverance are; some tribal Aborigines, the !Kung tribe, & some species of monkey.

Why have a Lotus Birth?
Every mother has her own reasons. Here are some of the reasons that women may choose lotus birth;

- no desire or wish to sever the cord, or aversion of cutting through the cord.
- gentle and peaceful transition for the baby, allowing them to decide when to "let go" of that connection.
- respect for the baby and placenta.
- 100% gurantee that the baby gets the optimal and specific blood volume that is required for that particular baby.
- encourages the family to 'slow down' and partake in a babymoon or 'seclusion period'.
- encourages the mother to slow down in the first week or so for recovery and baby gets her full attention.
- minimises the "pass the baby around" game that visitors like to play! Most visitors will prefer to wait until the placenta is gone!
- spiritual or emotional reasons.
- tradition or cultural 'done thing'.
- no need to worry about how to clamp/cut/tie the cord!
- possible decreased risk of infection (Lotus birth ensures a closed system of cord, placenta, and baby. There is no open wound.)
- possible decreased healing time of belly button (Wounds take time to heal. If there is no wound, healing time is minimised.)

Just because the cord has stopped pulsing does not mean it has become useless along with the placenta. There is still blood flowing into the baby, and it is wise to wait until the child is finished with it. Once blood volume reaches an optimal level in the baby (for that specific baby), the rest of the cord vessels will close off. Closure of all vessels DO NOT occur when the cord visibly stops pulsing! Umbilical cords can continue to pulse at the umbilicus (at the belly button) for much longer than the centre of the cord - about 2 to 3 hours longer!

How to have a Lotus Birth
The placenta is kept level with the baby or higher (usually in a bowl or sieve) until the Wharton's Jelly has completely solidified, and all vessels have closed. If at that time, the mother decides she does not want a lotus birth, the cord could be cut without the need for clamping or tying off the cord.

If she wishes to continue with the lotus birth, the placenta is gently washed to remove blood clots and put back in the sieve/bowl and left to air. (Be nice, use warm water to wash it!) The placenta is best left to air for the first 24 hours, but it can also be wrapped in a cloth nappy whenever the mother desires.

Some people salt the placenta with sea salt to help the drying out process (after the first 24 hours). The nappy is changed once every 1-2 days and the placenta resalted until the cord falls away. DO NOT put anything on the cord or the part near the bellybutton. It is not necessary, just leave it alone! You may get some sticky stuff weeping from around the base of the cord, just wipe the dried bits off your baby's skin gently with a damp cloth. See here for Placenta Care and here for Cord Care. Also, some mothers make a 'placenta bag' to put the nappy and placenta inside, and carry it around with the baby. Other mothers make keepsake decorative clay bowls to keep their placenta in!

Dealing with Baby & Placenta:
The cord will dry out pretty quickly, so careful how you position it! You can get it to dry in a certain position so its convenient when you change the baby's nappy or clothes. I had mine dry with a kink to the side, at where the cord came out of the nappy. Don't do this right at the bellybutton, you will have difficulty changing nappies! Don't worry about flexibility - you will notice that the cord can rotate at the bellybutton. As long as you're careful, it will rotate easily as you move the placenta around.

To carry the placenta and baby, put the placenta on the baby's tummy. Treat it with respect and care same as you would with your baby! In bed, just place it next to the baby. You may find yourself getting impatient with the extra burden of the placenta but remember this! The first days are supposed to be a SLOW time spent with your family, getting to know the newest addition!

Take it easy for this first week and just enjoy being a mother! Let visitors know this so they don't stay for long or better still, ban visitors until you are ready. Let your baby get used to your smells, daddy's smells and any brother/sister smells before you introduce him/her to visitors. Also this way you won't get any "comments" from visitors about the cord or placenta!

The cord will fall off quickest if you leave it all open to the air as much as you can! My daughter pulled her cord off at around 6 or 7 days I think, it was completely dried by day 5 but she seemed to be rather attached to it! I also noticed that she'd get upset if DH (husband) changed the placenta nappy, maybe she thought he'd run off with it haha.

Does the placenta smell?
Some people have asked me about the smells. What smell!? I have not once noticed a bad or meaty smell from the placenta or cord at all. (I live in the hot and humid Wet Tropics of QLD too!) I have noticed a salty smell - from the sea salt, and because I sprinkled my placenta with lavender, there was this wonderful soft lavender smell from the placenta nappy. I have heard others say their placenta smells like their baby, and I found this to be true in the first 24 hours before I did anything with the placenta.

Other Information: It takes a lotus cord about 3 - 7 days to fall away compared to the 5 - 15 days it takes for a cut cord stub to fall off/heal. There is no need to worry about infection or hygiene in a lotus birth as there is NO wound. The lotus cord will fall off quicker than a cut cord stub which is an open wound, and needs to heal, dry out and fall off. Open wounds also run a chance of getting infected!!

It is said that when the placenta is left intact, the baby is sensitive to having the cord and/or placenta touched. Even if the baby is sleeping and the placenta is touched it can startle the baby (this is reported even after the child and placenta are a few days old). Also, the baby may be particular to who touches his/her placenta!

After the Lotus Birth:
The placenta can be stored in the freezer in a labelled container, buried under a favourite tree in the garden, or even planted in a pot with a favourite tree or plant, so you can keep it with you even if you move house!

If you do bury/plant the placenta, don't plant anything in the same spot for one year as the placenta is so rich in nutrients that it can sometimes kill anything planted before a year is allowed to pass. Plant a tree, flower or plant in the same spot and the placenta will nourish its growth! Some families have small celebrations or rituals when they bury the placenta, and again when they plant something special a year later.

Some people ground the placenta up after it has dried out completely (some dry it out slowly in the oven, the sun, or in a dehydrator), in a mortar and pestle and consume the powder with food or in capsule form for its medical properties.

Others may cook the placenta or eat it raw - this helps prevent haemorrhage if done after birth, by making the uterine wall contract. It provides vitamin K and many other valuable nutrients and is absorbed by the mother in a way that it gives her an extraordinary boost of energy, speeding up the recovery time as well. It is also thought to reduce postpartum depression if eaten.

There are many medical uses for the placenta as it is so rich in antibodies and nutrients, but not many women will be willing to take a chomp out of it!