Lotus Birth: A new type of child birth

Stem cell banking is so much in trend today with lots advertisement and everything. Its being marketed as a good thing for your child. So this question came up today on the lunch table at office from a south Indian colleague of mine to an american colleague who recently became a father that if he did stem cell preservation for his newly born child.

Now this american colleague of ours had done great research to have found the best practices for child delivery and so what he told really amazed me. He informed that other than preserving stem cell or throwing it away, there is a third option also which very few people know. 

This third option is called as lotus birth in which as the baby comes out, the umbilical cord along with placenta is left un-cut from the baby for next few hours till all the blood pumps into the baby. The baby all this while remains with the mother receiving her warmth unlike other cases where the nurse takes away the baby (and at times mixes with other babies in big hospitals !). Once all the blood flows, the umbilical cord is pretty much dead which can then be cut like normal. In this case, our american colleague did the cutting which they had already informed the hospital that the father would cut the umbilical cord. 

To this my south Indian colleague, who is also a parent added that she too had some knowledge of this and wanted the same thing in her case but people were not aware about it in India. Surprisingly to which the american colleague replied that he actually found out about this practice in a birthing class he and his wife attended when they were in India ! 

Also the south Indian colleague gave a very nice analogy. She said that the reason why this is called as lotus birth is because as per Hindu mythology, Lord Vishnu has a stem coming out at the end of which is a lotus on which Lord Brahma sits who is the God of creation ! So here umbilical cord is the stem, placenta the lotus and Lord Brahma, God of creation is the baby ! 

I am also a parent and I just sat there in surprise for I had no idea about this approach. So if you or someone you know is expecting a child, go out and explore about this lotus birth and discuss with your doctor about it.

He told many other very interesting things based on all his research which I plan to share on this blog sometime later

Note: Pls don't base any of your decisions on the basis of this blog.