Filed under: baby care, birth | Tags: ahimsa, birth, child care, cutting the umbilical cord, healthy baby, lotus birth, navel infection, placenta, umbilical cord, when to cut the cord
Q: What is Lotus Birth exactly?
A: The practice of neonatal umbilical intactness - nonseverance of the umbilical cord - and absence of any
potential portal of navel infection. The birth practice of the early American pioneers who produced some of the
hardiest children known in American history… and valued everything they had. Also called “Umbilical
Nonseverance.” The baby, cord, and placenta are treated as one unit, as they are all originate from the same
cellular source (egg and sperm).
This informed choice practice requests healthcare providers to follow the protocols of “Passive Management” of
Third Stage Labor, and also forego invasive cord clamping. The baby is born and remains attached to its cord
while the placenta is birthed. The baby’s placenta-cord is kept in-situ with the baby, gently wrapped in cloth
or kept in an uncovered bowl near the mother, and the cord is sometimes wrapped in silk ribbon up to the
baby’s belly.
The cord quickly dries and shrinks in diameter, similar to sinew, and detaches often by the 3rd
Postpartum day (but up to a week in certain humid indoor air conditions) leaving a perfect, healed navel.
Interestingly, extended-delayed cord clamping & severing (just waiting more than an hour after the baby’s
birth), results in quicker cord stump healing, with an average of only one week for detachment of the stump,
which makes a big difference for diaper changing!
Read more at Lotusfertility.com
Elias is shown here at 6 weeks. Defying current medical midwifery & pediatric standards of
‘normal,’ this relaxed and aware child born at 8lbs 4oz. did not experience the typical American
neonatal stresses of injections, circumcision, weight loss, and breastfeeding jaundice. He grows,
glows, and gazes with a uncommon American infant VITALITY that brings total strangers to
spontaneous states that can only be described as inspiration, wherever his family goes.
