Write About Birth | Write About Birth

What is a Lotus Birth?

Date: 2011.03.20 | Category: Birth | Tags: leave placenta attached to baby,Lotus Birth,Placenta bag

Most babies will have their umbilical cord severed immediately after birth. Delayed cord clamping, where the cord is left attached for several minutes after birth, or until the cord stops pulsating, is a practice that is gaining popularity – it allows the blood that was left in the placenta when the baby was born to reach the baby, and also means the placenta will continue to provide oxygen to the baby for a while after birth. A small group of people, mostly unassisted birth families as far as I can tell, chooses to take delayed cord clamping one step further. These people choose a Lotus Birth, and never cut the cord at all.

Lotus Birth means leaving the placenta attached to a newborn baby until the cord naturally comes off. Mothers who have practiced Lotus Birth told me that the cord usually comes undone after three days or so. Some see Lotus Birth as a more gentle transition to life outside of the uterus, and say that babies tend to cry when the umbilical cord is cut. For many, this practice is meant to slow them down after the birth of their baby, and spend those precious first days in bed, snuggled up with their new baby – bonding and nursing.

How do you pull off a Lotus Birth? Isn’t it dreadfully inconvenient? The fact that the baby’s placenta remains attached until it comes off naturally means that one has to carry both baby and placenta around wherever they go (not generally very far, which is part of the point of this practice). Many families put the placenta in a special bowl, often wrapped in a placenta bag which they made during pregnancy. Like all meat that is left out at room temperature, less than pleasant things can happen to the placenta. Yes, it will start rotting. This means Lotus Birth families salt the placenta to stop bad smells, and often put herbs on it as well. Rosemary is one that is often mentioned.

As far as I can tell, there are no physiological benefits to leaving a baby attached to its placenta until it naturally comes off. It can, however, give families an excuse to keep other people out of their home for a few days, and it seems like a particularly effective way to stop other people from wanting to hold your brand new baby.

Consider Lotus Birth if:
- You are not easily grossed out
- Want your new baby all to yourself until the cord comes off
- Think carrying around a baby and a placenta is just fine
Lotus Birth is not for you if:
- You are having a hospital birth
- Want to eat your placenta
- Plan to go out of the house in the first few days
- Are a skeptic – like me
- Don’t want rotting meat near your baby, even if it’s his own placenta
Have you had a Lotus Birth? Are you convinced there are physiological benefits? Would you like to share your experience? We’d love to hear from you! And everyone else’s thoughts are welcome too, of course!

17 Responses to “What is a Lotus Birth?”

Momma Jorje 11/03/21 02:14

I researched and considered a lotus birth, even though I was going to birth at a hospital. I decided, however, that delayed clamping was fine.

If I home birth, I’ll probably consider it all over again, but my husband is much more squeamish than I. I’d definitely be interested in comments regarding physiological benefits to share.
Momma Jorje recently posted..Sunday Surf- 3 handy &amp 1 touching tale
writenow 11/03/21 10:11

Like you, I decided that delayed cord clamping (physiological cord clamping, actually!) was fine. Once the cord stops pulsing, I really don’t see any benefits.
Amy 11/03/21 14:14

We delayed cord clamping at our home birth. I had read about Lotus Birth in Dr. Elizabeth Buckley’s “Gentle Birth Gentle Mothering” book — which is excellent, but she really doesn’t talk about the fact that this is rotting meat, like you do here. My placenta is still in my freezer, waiting for me to plant it soon!
Rara 11/03/21 23:49

I plan on giving lotus birth a try. I’ve read that the infection rate is virtually zero and that lotus babies are calmer and sleep better. Will let you know. BTW, read an excellent story of a woman who had to have an emergency C-section and requested that they not cut the cord. She had a successful lotus C-section. She did have to yell at one nurse who tried to cut it later, but the doctors and most of the staff found it intriguing. :)
Lindsey 11/03/22 01:14

Is it really “rotting” if it is salted with salt that actually preserves meat? hmmm….
TinkAe 11/03/22 02:18

Rara, that’s amazing to have happened in a hospital. Was this by any chance in CA, USA?
Rara 11/03/22 07:27

Took me a while but I found it again. It was in Australia. :)
writenow 11/03/22 07:41

What an amazing story, Rara! I can’t wait to hear about your own experience with Lotus Birth.
writenow 11/03/22 07:43

Lindsey, I’ll have to admit to being a lifelong vegetarian :). I did eat my placenta, but I don’t actually know what would happen if you’d salt one and leave it out at room temperatures, or how much salt to rub into it. One would assume it would start rotting (and the umbilical cord stump of babies whose cords were cut do, in fact, rot off – that’s the biological process), but perhaps it will not.
Issa 11/03/23 03:13

I’m not considering lotus birth at all. It just sounds so weird, and I can’t come up with any reason to do it that makes sense. On the rotting/preserving idea… just because you’re salting it doesn’t mean it isn’t *gross*. Trust me, I’ve got a salted ham hanging up in my kitchen right now. It’s not rotting – it’s shelf stable until I cut into it, but it’s still pretty gross. I can’t imagine carrying it around waiting for it to detach from my baby.
Issa recently posted..Sleep Safety Propaganda
writenow 11/03/23 09:33

Thanks so much for your homesteading perspective! I’m hardly an authority on meat, though I did eat my placenta :). Can you describe exactly how it is gross if it is not rotting? Does it smell bad?

The other thing that came to mind is that, if you dropped the placenta while it was still attached, it could cause some really nasty traction injuries to your baby.
Issa 11/03/23 16:44

The ham doesn’t really smell bad. It mostly smells like ham, although perhaps kind of a “stronger” smell. The main thing that’s gross is that it looks like a dead part of an animal. It’s just not pleasant to look at hanging in my kitchen, and I’m thinking I wouldn’t like to carry a hunk of meat around with my baby. The ham also has mold on the outside and sometimes it “sweats”, both normal with salt cured meat. I don’t know how it would be different with an internal organ.
Issa recently posted..Wordless Wednesday- Bowl of Eggs
Shelly 11/12/30 04:15

I had a lotus birth with my home water birthed daughter. It really wasn’t gross at all. We washed the placenta and then wrapped it in cloth diapers and added salt and herbs. It did not smell at all. It fell off after 4 days. Baby and I stayed in bed, slept and nursed and had plenty of skin to skin the entire time. When her cord fell off her belly button was completely healed. While she was attached she slept a great deal and was quite peaceful. When it detached there was a definite change in her energy, she seemed more present and aware.

Lotus birth is about non violence and allowing your baby to separate from its placenta in her own time and really honoring her first days with you and allowing her time to adjust to her new home outside of the womb. I think you are really doing a disservice by calling a placenta rotting meat. You make it sound disgusting when the reality is that lotus birth is a beautiful, gentle, peaceful way to welcome the new soul you will be care taking into your life. Sure, it’s not for everyone but it’s also nothing like curing a ham.
writenow 12/01/04 15:57

Thanks for sharing your perspective! I am quite aware that alternative birth choices can invoke very negative and hurtful comments among many, and I didn’t mean to insult or offend anyone who had a lotus birth. The practice is interesting to me, although I am skeptical and would not choose it for any medical or scientific reasons. I did eat my placenta, and that was one of the few experiences I had with meat as a vegetarian. The “rotting meat” may be a prejudice on my side, because I hardly ever see meat up close. But please tell me, how did you preserve the placenta? At what temperature did you keep it? Were there really no changes (commencing of rotting) in the period it was attached? Curious, not judgmental :).
Shelly 12/01/07 16:16

An hour or more I can’t remember exactly after birth we rinsed it and put it in a colander for an hour or so afterwards. Then we put dried rosemary and lavender on it along with sea salt and wrapped in a cloth diaper. I made a special bag for it and we tucked it inside. We kept it at room temp in the bed with us. No ice or anything like that. That’s about it. It never smelled at all. I would describe it less like rotting and more like drying out. By the time it detached (4days) it was pretty hard and dry with no smell at all. We probably changed the diaper it was wrapped in once or twice during the first day or so. It was wet from being rinsed. But it soon dried out and we didn’t really need to do anything else to it. The process was really easy. I’m vegan and rotting meat in the bed with me and my baby would have horrified me. It really was nothing like that at all.
writenow 12/01/08 12:03

Thanks for that description. That sounds just fine, actually.

If you had other kids before, did you notice any difference in behavior the first few days? My first daughter had her cord severed by the homebirth midwife, right after birth. My UC-ed son had his cord attached until well after it stopped pulsing. I cut it after it had become cold and hard (Wharton’s Jelly), and it certainly didn’t make him cry. Both were quiet, content babies in the first days (and beyond), Can you explain more about the non-violent idea behind this? I assume you wouldn’t think of cutting hair or toenails as violent — how does this differ for you?
Shelly 12/01/09 18:16

Her toe nails didn’t keep her alive for 9 months. We let her choose when to let go of her placenta. “In her own time…”