The Holistic Implications Of Lotus Birth

An example that I particularly like is from a culture I have heard about where a woman wanting a child spends time in nature. Through 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 that sound. She teaches her midwives the sound and they use it during her labour. Whenever the baby is fitful or, in later 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 also have a signature sound. The understanding and use of sound for healing is well known among some peoples; the Tibetans probably being the most well-known of those. 

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 an 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 many Eastern teachings, comprise the totality of our being: 

• physical body 
• emotional body 
• mental body 
• etheric body 
• spiritual body 

There are vital energies, which are part of all living things, that flow through and around our bodies. These energies, known as auras, can be seen by some people. Chinese systems of acupuncture describe how energy, known as chi, flows along meridians throughout the body. It extends beyond the physical body (as we generally regard it) to form the auric field, or aura, around the body. This auric field is our interface with other dimensions of subtle energies. A strong auric field helps to preserve the integrity of the organism. 

This understanding of the human being is ancient and worldwide, although not part of the general Western notion of reality. Quantum physics, however, is leading scientists to recognise these phenomena as valid. 

In time, I am sure, we shall be able to prove that a strong auric field is indicative of a strong immune system. Holes or damage in the auric field manifests as a weak immune system. These damaged areas provide the energetic grid from which many degenerative diseases manifest. 

From a holistic perspective, the practice of Lotus Birth is most logical. Lotus Birth slows things down. This is most desirable. The time after a birth is to be savoured. 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 the birth for the family to settle in, to be together in a very 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. 

We may well wonder whether the hectic stress-filled lives many of us lead are a reflection of our very first hours and days in hospitals – hustle and bustle and the tyranny of time. Taking time – ‘being’ in time – for the first 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 is established with greater ease in this environment.