Lotus Birth

…………………recent research indicates that the first 45 minutes are vital for the establishment of the flow of oxytocin, which contributes to the baby’s neurological development and sense of wellbeing. This is a time for the mother and child, not strangers. The long-term implications of disruption of this process are continuing to be revealed as we appreciate more fully the precision of nature’s design and the wisdom of supporting it.

I began to notice that often babies who were very quiet would begin to cry when their cord was cut. They would be very distressed, sometimes crying for more than 30 minutes. The question arose: ‘Does the baby know about its placenta?’ and ‘Does the cutting of cord hurt it?’ There is now a growing body of evidence to support the view those babies do, indeed, have full awareness at birth (unless they are drugged) and they do feel the pain……………….

In 1982 I compiled a research questionnaire on third stage that provided me with some very valuable information. I presented it at a seminar attended by pregnant couples, midwives, childbirth educators and doulas. Research had been conducted among 153 women on their and their babies’ experiences of third stage in the hospital environment. The data collected found that procedures and interventions that were routinely carried out caused discomfort and distress for both mother and baby…………….

Reported reactions of babies to having their cords cut included: ‘gasped, shuddered, screamed, cried louder, whimpered, wringing of hands, began crying’. Mothers’ descriptions of third stage included: ‘unpleasant, didn’t notice, awful, horrific, a non-experience, foggy, pretty dreadful, disastrous, painful, surprising, lovely, sensuous’.

At the seminar the midwives who rarely cut cords until well after the placenta delivered spoke of the natural evolution and successful completion of third stage. Third stage was discussed as a time of potential healing on physical and spiritual levels for the mother and the baby; a time of resolution after the excitement of birth and before the beginning of the fourth stage as mothers, sons and daughters; as an opportunity provided by nature and well worth taking advantage of.

These Lotus Birth babies are different. They are more whole- more like babies used to be. Today’s babies are often very worried – they show signs of stress. This is concerning; that stress is increasing even in babies.

The most striking example of wellness I have seen in a lotus-born baby was a baby whose father died during the pregnancy. When this happens one can expect that the child will manifest symptoms of distress related to the mother’s emotional state. This lotus-born child was completely clear of the residual trauma that these cases usually carry. She was very calm and centered. From my observations of the babies I see in my practice I find Lotus Birth most beneficial.

The spiritual relationship between child and parents is not a notion that finds discussion in our culture. However, other cultures, mainly indigenous, do acknowledge and tend this aspect of human life on earth. An example that I particularly like is from culture I have heard about where a woman wanting a child spends time in nature. Trough meditative practice she comes to know the sound of the baby who is to incarnate. She teaches this sound to her partner and when they make love, they make the sound. She teaches her midwives the sound and they use it during her labor. Whenever the baby is fitful or, in after life, unwell, that sound is used to soothe and heal. After the person dies the sound is never used again.

These people know about the interconnectedness of all beings just as we know that each individual has their own unique fingerprint, they know that we all have a signature sound. The understanding and use of sound with healing is well known among some peoples; the Tibetans probably being the most well known of these.

Many indigenous cultures have a strong sense of being part of a continuum. Our isolated ‘me’ culture deprives us of this. If we reflect on how most of us were born – drugged, isolated from our mother and deprived of basic mammalian needs of access to the breast, skin-to-skin contact and holding – we might begin to understand more fully the difficulties we have in our interpersonal relationships.

The implications of Lotus Birth are best approached through the perspective of the ancient mystery traditions, developed in places as diverse as India, China and Egypt. Through disciplines of contemplation and meditation, these traditions have developed and understanding of the totality of a human being that is still absent from Western medical science. Generally, they articulate dimensions across which human beings live simultaneously, and how disharmony or trauma in one affects the others.

To fully understand the implications of Lotus Birth, it is helpful to have an understanding of the five bodies, which, according to eastern teachings, comprise the totality of our being.

These are vital energies, which are part of all living things, which flow through and around our bodies. These energies, known as auras, can be seen by some people. …………………. Holes or damage in the auric field manifest as a weak immune system. These damaged areas provide the energetic grid from which many degenerative disease manifests.

Lotus Birth slows things down. This is most desirable. The time after a birth is to be savored. It is like the time after making love, after the climax, a time of intimacy and integration. A mother, who has just birthed her baby, after nine months of pregnancy, benefits greatly from quiet and rest. The birth experience requires integration. Time to reflect on things and to be able to talk about it all with supportive people is most beneficial. The father and other children who may have been present also appreciate and benefit from this ‘between times’.

Lotus Birth provides a unique opportunity after birth for the family to settle in, to be together in a special way. With the placenta still attached, the sense of being in the space ‘between worlds’ is very apparent. The baby is here, but is still there. The time of transition from the beyond into the physical plane of existence is obvious. These first few days see the digestive tract and the elimination system, both of which are part of placental function, become established in the baby’s body.

Taking time – being in time – for the first few days of life may well be the panacea for 80% of the diseases from which we suffer which are stress related.

To begin in a place away from positive ion – producing machines such as computers, televisions, mobile phones, microwave ovens and air conditioning allows the baby’s systems and subtle bodies to align and the organism to find its own integrity. This is the point from which the baby will relate to itself and others. Breastfeeding establishes with greater ease in this environment.

The creation of the placenta is one of the most mysterious and ingenious acts of creation, one about which we actually know very little, even though our very existence has depended on it.

Six days after the sperm from the father merged with the ovum – which our mother has carried in her body since she herself, was developing inside our grandmother – this tiny six-day old organism (us), about to attach itself to the uterine wall, undergoes a still not understood process that causes the same genetic material to go two ways. Some becomes the baby and some the placenta. Alternatively, we could regard the baby and the placenta as a single unit – with the placenta an essential organ, such as the heart, liver, functioning and necessary for survival. However, we don’t say, ‘some of the genetic material turns into the bay and some turns into the heart or lungs’, so why do we conceptually separate the placenta from the baby?

Lotus Birth establishes the baby-placenta relationship and suggests that the mother gives birth to the baby-placenta. As we shall see, there are no sustainable medical reasons for cutting the cord and separating the biological unit that conceived, grew and delivered (or birthed) together.

Current birthing practice is to cut the cord while the placenta is still in the mother. When this happens, people do not perceive the complete biological init of baby-placenta and as a consequence find it difficult to imagine the biological-historical-genetic-foetal unity of the placenta-baby. As the practice continues, many mothers never even see the placenta and some think that the placenta is theirs. Lotus Birth puts placental ownership clearly with the baby, where it belongs…………………………..

The placenta establishes itself during the first ten weeks of pregnancy and by three months it is fully mature. It feeds nutrients to the baby via the umbilical cord and carries away and processes waste products. It provides a two-way exchange through the three large arteries of the umbilical cord.

There are sound physical reasons for not cutting the cord, which have to do with the blood value and volume that the baby would otherwise miss out on. The baby’s emotional life and implications for its future relationships are further factors. Beyond that, there is the etheric level and the transference of energies.

Lotus Birth ensures that the physical body is well cared for by ensuring that the baby receives the full quotient of the oxygen-bearing highly nutritious blood that is in the cord. The infant obtains 40 to 60ml of ‘extra’ blood from the placenta if the cord is not ties until pulsation ceases. The loss of 30ml of blood to the newborn is equivalent to the loss of 600ml to an adult. Common practice of immediate cutting of the cord before the pulsations cease deprives the newborn of a possible 60ml of blood, the equivalent of a 1200ml hemorrhage in an adult. This is a likely explanation of the phenomenon of weight loss that most newborns seem to endure. The new organism is put immediately under undue stress to reproduce the blood it was denied.

We must wonder, too, whether the denial of the iron-rich cord blood is a contributing factor to widespread cases of infant and childhood anemia.

The immature liver is supported by the placenta in the offloading of toxins, as the pumping action continues until the cessation of pulsations. Most baby’s bodies are loaded up with these, including the drugs administered during the birth, and have to begin life dealing with the unnecessary toxic waste in their immature systems.

The emotional body is nourished by a lack of stress on the new organism. It enjoys the ongoing support of the placenta, which allows the flow of oxytocin (the love hormone), as opposed to adrenaline, which is generated by the fear-or-survival mechanism.

This allows the baby primal imprint of happiness and bliss as it takes in its first sights, sounds, smells and tastes.

Once the cord is emptied of blood we have a beautiful flat silvery ribbon; however, its functions continue. Transference from the placenta is still occurring. Life force still in the placenta is transferred to the baby. This transference continues until the baby’s auric field is complete. During this time, which can take three to seven days, the cord becomes brown and brittle. At the point of auric completion the cord simply comes away at the navel – the child is lotus born.

· Wait for the placenta to be born naturally. Place the Placenta in a bowl near the baby. It can stay there until you are ready to put it in a strainer. There is no hurry – 24 hours is ok.

· Wash the placenta gently in warm water, remove and blood clots and pat dry.

· Babies appear to like being told what is happening – even though you may think they don’t understand.

· Wrap the placenta in absorbent material (a nappy or cloth), which is changed every day. Some people use salt to absorb the moisture. A placenta bag can be used.

· Ensure that the placenta is close to the baby so as not to cause any pulling on the cord.

· When the cord becomes brittle, take care. You can wet it to soften it and reshape it. It then dries again.

· Put the baby’s nappies on loosely, and place extra nappies underneath the baby. These can easily be changed. This is a quite still time – keep this space free of television and mobile phones.

The modern materialistic scientific mind has exiled itself from Spirit and nature. The ‘conquest of nature’, which is the mission of this from of thought, has sought to abolish the natural mystery and to replace it with that which is known, knowable, predictable and safe. The mystery of incarnation, where spirit descends into biological form and emerges as intelligence in carbon-based life form, has no place in a scientific laboratory filled with Petri dishes, pipettes, eggs and sperm, donors, surrogates, pharmaceuticals and air conditioning……………………

Birth has become a technical rather than an emotional experience in the same way as death – both take place within a sterile hospital atmosphere. Emotions have become controlled by chemicals rather than being expresses in a healing environment. The intimacy and emotional power of childbirth can be stripped away by the impersonal attitudes of hospital staff and technical procedures they use. In the West this depersonalisation has been regarded as progressive, however, these ostensibly progressive changes have a profound cultural impact on individuals and families. Making birth and death technical rather than significant life events is symptomatic of a deeper process of technological control over our lives.

The technologisation of the twentieth century has contributed to a move away from the traditional childbirth practices – home birth attended by a midwife – to birth in hospital assisted by instruments and drugs. In this environment the baby is separated from the mother and both are isolated from the family. Instead machines, routine, doctors, nurses, and an impersonal approach surround them.

Obstetrics courses in medical schools ensure that the birth practices developed from the 1920’s to the 1950’s remain pervasive in the West. Allopathic medicine, which represents the medical model as we know I today, tends to ignore the psychological factors affecting health, as well as the traditional organic herbal remedies………

There is now a growing movement to humanise childbirth – woman demanding control over their own labour, the emotional support of their families rather than anesthesia to deal with pain. Birth can be a positive experience. There is a growing concern with how to make the birth experience a source of profound personal growth for the mother and a psychologically/spiritually positive experience for the infant.

Let’s take a brief look at the historical development of awareness around the birth process, so that we can place Lotus Birth as part of the continuum of development in Western thought regarding childbirth.

Generally, the outcome of birth is parallel to life expectancy. Improvements in nutrition and sanitation and the understanding of infection have had the most dramatic effect on what are now regarded as better outcomes for mother and child. Child mortality has life expectancy continues to grow……………….

People working in hospitals have a certain way of looking at things that enables them to identify what’s wrong with a person and how best to address the problem. This is appropriate when somebody presents with a problem. It is not a helpful attitude for a normal healthy birth.

Over the past decades birth has become regarded as a series of wrongs that had to be righted. Now days, woman are listening to their bodies and their babies in utero, knowing how their babies want to be born. Lotus Birth is part of the awakening.

Lotus Birth is a call to pay attention to the natural physiological process. Its practice, though witnessing, restores faith in the natural order.

Lotus Birth extends the birth time into the sacred days that follow and enables baby, mother and father and all the family members to pause, reflect and engage in nature’s conduct. Lotus Birth is a call to return to the rhythms of nature, to witness the natural order and to the experience of not doing, just being

The medical approach to pregnancy and birth has become so ingrained in our culture that we have forgotten the way of birth of our ancestors: a way that has ensured our survival as a species for millennia. In the rush to supposedly protect mothers and babies from misfortune and death, modern obstetrics has neglected to pay its dues to the Goddess, to Mother nature, whose complex and elegant systems of birth are interfered with on every level by this new approach, even as we admit our inability to understand or these elemental forces.

………………………………….. At the time when Mother Nature prescribes awe and ecstasy, we have injections, examinations, and clamping and pulling on the cord. Instead of body heat and skin-to-skin contact, we have separation and wrapping. When time should stand still for those eternal moments of first contact, as mother and baby fall deeply in love, we have haste to deliver the placenta and clean up for the next ‘case’.

Active management also creates specific and potentially life threatening problems for mother and baby. In particular, use of active management leads to a newborn baby being deprived of up to half of his or her expected blood volume. This extra blood, which is intended to perfuse the newly functioning lungs and other vital organs, is discarded along with the placenta when active management is used, with possible sequellae such as breathing difficulties and anemia, especially in vulnerable babies.

Drugs used in active management have documented risks for the mother, including death, and we do not know the long-term effects of these drugs, which are given at a critical stage of brain development, for the baby.

As a mammalian species – that is, we have mammary glands that produce milk for our young-we share almost all features of labour and birth with our fellow mammals. We have in common the complex orchestration of labour hormones, produced deep within our ‘mammalian’ (or middle) brain, to aid us and ultimately ensure the survival of our offspring.

We are helped in birth by three major mammalian hormone systems, all of which play important roles in the third stage as well. The hormone oxytocin causes the uterine contractions that signal labour, as well as helping us to enact our instinctive mothering behaviors. Endorphins, the body’s natural opiates, produce an altered state of consciousness and aid us in transmuting pain: and the fight-or-flight hormones adrenaline and noradrenalin (epinephrine and norepinephrine – also known as catecholamines or CAs) give us the burst of energy that we need to push our babies out in second stage.

During the third stage of labour, strong uterine contractions continue at regular intervals, under the continuing influence of oxytocin. The uterine muscle fibres shorten, or retract, with each contraction, leading to a gradual decrease in the size of the uterus, which helps to ‘shear’ the placenta away form its attachment site. Third stage is complete when the placenta is delivered.

For the new mother, the third stage is a time of reaping the rewards of her labour. Mother nature provides peak levels of oxytocin, the hormone of love, and endorphins, hormones of pleasure for both mother and baby. Skin-to-skin contact and the baby’s first attempts to breastfeed further augment maternal oxytocin levels, strengthening the uterine contractions that will help the placenta to separate, and the uterus to contract down. In this way, oxytocin acts to prevent hemorrhage, as well as to establish, in concert with the other hormones, the close bond that will ensure a mother’s care and protection, and thus her baby’s survival.

At this time, the high adrenaline levels of second stage, which have kept mother and baby wide-eyed and alert at first contact, will be falling, and a very warm atmosphere is necessary to counteract the cold, shivering feelings that a woman has as her adrenaline levels drop. If the environment is not well heated, and/or the mother is distracted, continuing high levels of adrenaline will counteract oxytocin’s beneficial effects on her uterus, thereby increasing the risk of haemorrhage………………………….

A crucial role for birth attendants in these times is to ensure that a woman’s mammalian instincts are protected and valued during pregnancy, birth and afterwards. Ensuring unhurried and uninterrupted contact between mother and baby after birth, adjusting the temperature to accommodate a shivering mother, allowing skin-to-skin contact and breastfeeding, and not removing the baby for any reason – these practices are sensible, intuitive and safe, and help to synchronise our hormonal systems with our genetic blueprint, giving maximum success and pleasure for both partners in the critical function of child-rearing.

Adaptation to life outside the womb is a major physiological task for the baby in the third stage. In utero, the wondrous placenta fulfils the functions of lungs, kidneys, gut and liver for our babies. Blood flow to these organs is minimal until the baby takes a first breath, at which time huge changes begin in the organisation of the circulatory system.

Within the baby’s body, blood becomes, over several minutes, diverted away from the umbilical cord and placenta and, as the lungs fill with air, blood is sucked into the pulmonary (lung) circulation. Mother nature ensures a reservoir of blood in the cord and placenta that provides the additional blood necessary for these newly perfused pulmonary and organ systems.

The transfer of this reservoir of blood from the placenta to the baby happens in a step-wise progression, with blood entering the baby with each third-stage contraction, and some blood returning to the placenta between contractions. Crying slows down the intake of blood, which is also controlled by constriction of the vessels within the cord. Both of which imply that the baby may be able to regulate the transfusion according to individual need.

Gravity will effect the transfer of blood, with optimal transfer occurring when the baby remains at or below the level of the uterus until the cessation of cord pulsation signals that the transfer is complete. This process of ‘physiological clamping’ typically takes three minutes, but may be longer, or can be complete in only one minutes.

Physiologic clamping

Baby can do it.

As mention above, the cord will be cut as soon as or very soon after the baby is born unless you let your care providers know that you wish otherwise. There are many reasons why it is beneficial to leave the cord unclamped and uncut until the placenta has birthed. The main reason being that at the moment of birth, the placenta holds a portion of the baby's blood in reserve. Nature designed an amazing system for ensuring a smooth transition from life inside the uterus to the outside world where the new baby needs to breathe on its own. The blood passing between the baby and the placenta carries oxygen to the newborn, possibly even after the placenta has detached and delivered. Thus the natural process protects the brain by providing a continuous oxygen supply from two sources until the second source is functioning well.

While in the uterus, the placenta does the job of lungs, kidney, gut and liver for the baby. Because the baby's organs are not really needed, blood flow to them is minimal until the baby takes its first breath at delivery triggering huge changes in the organisation of the circulatory system.

Once the baby is born blood is diverted away from the umbilical cord and placenta and as the lungs fill with air, blood is sucked into the lung circulation. The placenta and cord contain the additional blood necessary for the extra blood needed to supply the lungs, kidneys, gut and liver which had previously not needed a blood supply of it's own. If the baby has to use its own blood supply for these organs it suffers a massive drop in blood volume of anywhere from 1/3rd to ½ of its blood volume.

The transfer of the blood from the placenta to the baby happens during the contractions of third stage, with blood is being pushed into the baby with each contraction, and some blood is returning to the placenta between contractions. It is thought that the baby may be able to regulate the transfusion of the blood depending on its individual need by crying which causes constriction of the blood vessels in the cord which slows the intake of blood.

Gravity will also affect the transfer of blood from the placenta to the baby's circulation, so it is ideal to have the baby remain at or below the level of the uterus until the cord stops pulsing. This process of "physiological clamping" can take between 1 and 3 minutes.

You will know that natural cord clamping has occurred when:

There are no pulsations in the cord. This tells you that the arteries are closed.

The baby is breathing and is pink. This tells up that the heart and lungs are working.

There is no blood in the cord . This tells us that the transfer of blood from the placenta to the baby is complete.

The arguments for immediate cord clamping

There is much evidence to support delayed cord clamping, so why is it so unusual?

- There is a belief that the oxygen deficit is what causes the baby to start breathing. Yes, the blood passing between the baby and the placenta carries oxygen to the newborn, maybe even after the placenta has detached and delivered. The truth is that we don't know exactly what causes the newborn to take its first breath; another theory is that it is the change in temperature. If we don't know, why assume that Mother Nature has it wrong?

- Belief that delayed clamping will cause too much blood to go to the newborn. In fact the baby will receive exactly what it needs as the cord is still able to take excess blood away from the baby and will clamp itself when the time is right.

- Belief that delayed clamping results in a higher incidence of jaundice. In an effort to prevent the possibility of jaundice, obstetric practitioners have reasoned against delayed cord clamping, since it increases the volume of red blood cells which, in breaking down, will produce increased levels of bilirubin possibly resulting in jaundice. True, jaundice may be prevented in premature infants by early clamping; however, for a full-term baby, there are so many advantages to delaying cord clamping until after the placenta has delivered itself. Research I have read on the topic has confirmed that there is a larger number of red blood cells transferred to the baby but not enough to increase the risk of jaundice in healthy full term babies. See special circumstances for more info regarding pre-term babies, resuscitation and Rh incompatibility and donating cord blood.

- Convenience. It is easier when whisking a baby away to be cleaned weighed and 'checked'. Following most hospital protocols is easier done when the baby is no longer attached to the mother. The alternative is: a baby can be put on the mother's belly immediately following the birth or wrapped in a blanket and held by the mother providing the cord is long enough, until the placenta is delivered and the cord stops pulsating.

- Potential dangers of immediate cord clamping

For the Mother

- Interference with third stage hormonal systems involving oxytocin and endorphins , these hormones are linked to bonding and are a natural means of preventing haemorrhage

- More difficulty in delivering a bulky placenta due to a higher blood volume than it should

- Increased risk of haemorrhage

- Increased risk of retained placenta

- Increased risk of baby's blood entering mothers circulation which can cause Rh incompatibility in future pregnancies of susceptible mothers.

For the baby

- Denial of the full 'placental transfusion' to the newborn baby for some babies this means it loses up to half of its total blood volume (54 to 160 ml out of 300 to 350 ml)

- Deprivation of oxygen contained in the placental blood

- Loss of 'life-line' if breathing is delayed, increasing risk of damage from lack of oxygen

- Not enough blood to adequately supply newly functioning tissue and organs in the time after birth

- There are concerns of possible long-term organ damage

- Brain lesions have been found in primates and human babies who have undergone immediate cord clamping that are absent in those who have delayed cord clamping. This appears to be due to oxygen deprivation and is being investigated as a possible cause of autism and learning difficulties.

- Increased likelihood of anemia

- Deprivation of stem cells contained in the placental/cord blood. Companies pay big bucks to have this blood collected and whisked away in a cold box to collect stem cells. These cells can be donated to someone who is very sick or used for medical research. Some parents choose to have their children's cord blood saved for future treatment if it is required. Cord blood is now considered liquid gold and we are only beginning to understand the significance of stem cells. How do we know what we are doing by depriving our children of them?

- Increased need for resuscitation

- Increased risk of respiratory problems, especially in vulnerable babies.

Special circumstances and delayed cord cutting

Premature babies . It seems that this is the most controversial circumstance when considering when to cut the cord. There has been research to show that delayed cord cutting does increase the chance of the baby developing jaundice and other research shows that it has no effect. There does seem to unequivocal evidence to suggest that delayed cord clamping in very premature newborns reduces the need for blood transfusions for these babies and reduces the risk of bleeding into the brain.

My baby requires resuscitation. It is in these emergencies that the baby needs the cord intact to supply it with oxygen and blood. In most circumstances, necessary procedures can be carried out with the baby attached to the cord, either on the bed between its mother's knees or on its mother's abdomen. There are occasional cases where the cord is too short for this happen.

Rh incompatibility . For Rh negative women, there is credible evidence to suggest that it is the clamping of a pulsing cord that causes the blood of the baby to enter the blood stream of the mother causing sensitisation problems. In this instance cord cutting should undoubtedly be delayed and if this is not possible then allowing free bleeding from the mothers end of the cord can also reduce the risk of sensitisation occurring

I want to donate or store my babies cord blood . In this instance I think that the benefits have to outweigh the risks and this is up to every couple to determine. It depends on the knowledge and skill of the person collecting the blood as to weather cord blood collection and cord cutting needs to happen immediately or whether it can be delayed at least until the cord has stopped pulsing. There are many midwives who have successfully collected enough cord blood to donate or store after waiting for the placenta to be fully birthed. If there is a dire need for the baby's stem cells from the cord blood (such as treatment for a family member) the best way to be absolutely sure that there will be enough collected is to collect it immediately following the birth.

What about caesareans? A baby born by caesarean can be lifted out with both the cord and placenta still attached. A very well controlled study I read concludes that it is possible to perform delayed cord clamping at a caesarean birth and that it should be performed wherever possible. Whether or not you have this option available to you will have a lot to do with the practices of the obstetrician you have working with you, so it is a good idea to discuss this option with your obstetrician before a caesarean and also to make sure that the rest of the team know of your wishes.

An amazing fact.

Newborns that have had a completely natural birth, and are simply placed on their mother's abdomen, will make their way without any assistance to their mother's nipple and attach themselves.

This is a completely instinctive response and is achieved by the same pushing reflex that has helped the baby out of its mother during the birth process. Another amazing fact, it always results in a 100 per cent correct attachment to the nipple.

It is estimated that early clamping deprives the baby of 54 to 160ml of blood, which represents up to half of a baby’s blood volume at birth. Clamping the cord before the infant’s first breath results in blood being sacrificed from other organs to establish pulmonary perfusion. Fatality may result if the child is already hypovolemic (low in blood volume).

Where the baby is lifted above the uterus before clamping – for example during Caesarean surgery – blood will drain back to the placenta by gravity, making these babies especially liable to receive less than their expected blood volume. The consequence of this may be an increased risk of respiratory distress …………………

The baby whose cord is clamped early also loses iron contained in the blood – early clamping has been linked with an extra risk of anaemia in infancy.

In one study, premature babies experiencing delayed cord clamping – even only 30 seconds – showed a reduced need for transfusion, less severe breathing problems, better oxygen levels, and indications of probable improved long-term outcomes, compared to those whose cords were clamped immediately.

Some studies have shown an increased risk of polycythemia and jaundice when the cord is clamped later. Polycythemia may be beneficial, in that more red cells means more oxygen being delivered to the tissues.

Jaundice is almost certain when a baby gets his or her full quota of blood, and is caused by the breakdown of the normal excess of blood to produce bilirubin, the pigment that causes the yellow appearance of a jaundiced baby.

Early cord clamping carries the further disadvantage of depriving the baby of the oxygen-rich placental blood that mother nature provides to tide the baby over until breathing is well established. In situations of extreme distress – for example, if the baby takes several minutes to breathe – this reservoir of oxygenated blood can be life saving, but, ironically, standard practice is to cut the cord immediately if resuscitation is needed.

Clamping the cord, especially at an early stage, may also cause the extra blood trapped within the placenta to be forced back through the placenta into the mother’s blood supply with the third stage contractions. This ‘foetomaternal transfusion’ increases the chance of future blood group incompatibility problems………………….

Birth is much more difficult for the baby than for its placenta because of its size, its bony skeleton and so forth. It is quite likely that the trauma of birth causes the baby to lose its hold on deep consciousness of itself as a being grounded in placental/earth consciousness, the unconscious wisdom of the body, the mammalian brain. If the cord is not cut, this familiar wisdom or sense of being that still resonates in the placenta can be accessed by the baby. Birth does not disturb the consciousness of the placenta because the placenta does not have to struggle to breath as does the baby, nor does it have sense receptors that are bombarded by strange unfamiliar sensations. Being still connected to the placenta after birth allows the baby to reconnect with its former sense of inner stability, of connection to a deep unchanging reality. It can remember the familiar resonance of deep unconscious knowing that still resides in the placenta.

For this connection to occur we need to allow babies time after birth. When a baby is not given time he or she cannot relate deeply with the knowing residing in the placenta. Not allowing time is a contemporary disease – we cannot stop hurrying. Lack of time to strengthen ourselves after birth from the energy of the placenta may be a primary imprint for the feeling that we do not have enough time in life. Allowing time after birth also allows for the sacredness of birth to be recognised.

Mott also talks about the incorporation of the placenta into the psyche of the baby. He describes a process that begins with the first breath, when the placenta is felt as the lungs that allow the nourishing first breath, the throat is felt as the cord and the brain or head is now the baby/foetus. This model is fascinating in that it is based on the findings in the deep intra-psychic work with his patients…………………….

In the case of Lotus Birth, there is less pressure for the baby to breathe immediately, and the transition between the intrauterine environment and condition of utter dependence to the first steps of independence outside the womb is not as severe and threatening. The placenta is psychologically akin to the mother who is there for the toddler exploring the environment…………………………

When the placenta remains connected to the baby after birth, the baby internalises a sense of deep connection to its physical being and the knowing that is in the mammalian and reptilian brains. With a Lotus Birth, the baby can draw into itself the deep sense of connection to the fact of embodiment, its composition of blood, bones, muscles and other tissues – it can experience its complete incorporation. This then becomes the knowing on which its sense of being is based. This deep knowing lends it a security, a reassurance of being what it is.

When our connection of our physical being is firm, we are then free to become aware of what lies beyond – the higher levels of existence. We become better able to experience ourselves as light and energy beyond the dense reality of the physical body. We are open to inspiration, to higher guidance, to insight.

From my reading, my dreams, imagination and deep trance experiences it seems to me that the placenta has various additional meanings. Firstly, the placenta stands for the recognition of the true nature by another. The placenta knows me better than anyone else ever will………………………

Secondly, because my placenta knows me better than I know myself, and because my placenta feeds me and deals with my waste, my placenta symbolises my inner wisdom. This inner wisdom is the link to the wisdom of my ancestry too……………..

Thirdly, and perhaps most obviously, my placenta embodies my first relationship. All those months in utero when we alone inhabited that watery space we communicated through touch, through sharing food and waste, through circulating blood and energy. We joined intimately through this shared life-blood, and yet there was a definite separation between my placenta and I that was mediated and measured through the cord. It has been called the ‘dark twin’ and my survival in the womb was completely dependent on it.

If the above are some of the characteristics of the relationship between a person and their placenta, what is the effect of cutting the cord too soon after the baby is born? If my placenta is that which knows me best, then its loss will entail losing my sense of being knowable and recognisable for whom I really am. I will feel as though I am among strangers who can never know me, and it is possible I may feel that I have been born into a family of people who are alien to me – a not uncommon feeling for children.