Professional Feedback
"LOTUS BIRTH is an educational tool generous in resource
and reference. It give us the who, the why, the how to, and the implications
for humankind if we don't slowdown and make a radical paradigm shift.
These people have!"
Binnie A Dansby - Author, Philosopher And Psychotherapist Specializing
In Pre and Perinatal Psychology www.ecstaticbirth.com
"I was awestruck with your honesty, courage and strength
when birthing your twins. Thankyou so much for sharing such intimate
details of your life with a wider audience. You are a truly inspirational
and amazing woman."
Jo Hunter - Coordinator of Homebirth Access Sydney (HAS) and Homebirth
Australia www.homebirthaustralia.org
"I've seen the DVD about 5 times now and it's just fantastic.
It should be required viewing for all pregnant couples and midwives
& obstetricians."
Yvette Langmaid-Buttery www.babiesonline.com
"It's the best birth movie I've seen. I recommend it to
everyone."
Sunderai Felich - Dial-a-Doula
Reviews
The Association for Pre and Perinatal Psychology and Health JOURNAL
July 2005
www.birthpsychology.com
Lotus Birth is the practice of leaving the umbilical cord uncut, so
that the baby remains attached to the placenta until the cord naturally
separates at the navel at 3 to 10 days after birth. Receiving the full
amount of the valuable cord blood present at birth is of major benefit
to the child's ongoing health and well-being. LOTUS BIRTH, the book,
and the DVD, LOTUS BIRTH, The Water Birth of the Malcolm Twins, have
captured my heart, mind and body and have nourished my soul's longing
to grow and evolve with grace. Both book and DVD fulfil all the criteria
for true education. Independent or together, they support integration
by informing the intellect, engaging the emotions and the senses, honouring
our Spiritual Nature, and invoking contemplation and personal expansion.
Shivam Rachana is an APPPAH member and principal of the International College of Spiritual Midwifery in Australia and New Zealand. In compiling the book, she has taken a synergistic approach, acknowledging and addressing the metaphysical and scientific, the anthropological, psychological, and the physical, all parts of what I consider to be an evolutionary step toward peace and wholeness. She has included Clair Lotus Day, known as the 'Mother of Lotus Birth'; a number of personal accounts from her community of women and men who are dedicated to healing themselves as the key to healing all consciousness about birth and life; well known APPPAH luminaries, Michel Odent and Jeannine P. Baker have made valuable contributions and Joseph Chilton Pearce, Lewis Mehl, David Chamberlain, Elizabeth Noble are quoted. Dr Sarah Buckley, a GP and Lotus Birth mother, is convincing and reassuring in chapter 3, bringing medical science and spirit together and sharing her own personal experience, as well. Her compelling essay, Ecstatic Birth, Nature's Hormonal Blueprint for Labour, is a special feature on the DVD.
"The way a woman gives birth and the kind of care given to her point as sharply as an arrowhead to the key values in a culture." Sheila Kitzinger
The centrepiece of the DVD, LOTUS BIRTH, The Water Birth of the Malcolm
Twins, features Davini Malcolm and her partner, Peter, documenting the
pregnancy from the 40th week, the birth of a family of 4, and Davini's
transition to Mother of Lotus Birth twins. This is rare opportunity
to see and hear 'inside' a pregnant and labouring woman's experience.
She is hugely generous, intimate, courageous and eloquent as she relates
her emotional and physical experience.
Resonant throughout is the sense of the personal healing work she has
done with herself and the supportive environment she has co-created
with family and community setting the stage for her to let go, open
and trust the process of Life.
This DVD, abundant with information, features an introduction to Lotus Birth by Shivam Rachana; a moving interview with a midwife who describes her job as the "keeper and protector of their (the couple) intimacy" always honouring the relationships and supporting the emotional and physical preparation for the baby and the family; there is even a demonstration of how to make a placenta bag.
Shivam Rachana is to be acknowledged for co-creating a community where Lotus Birth appears to be the norm. The parents who choose Lotus Birth are especially attentive to the baby's wishes. They listen. Assured of a good outcome, they can easily be patient. In every labour I have attended I have heard myself saying, "There is plenty of time, take your time." Especially in second stage when the body is pushing and resting in its own rhythm. Lotus Birth parents gift themselves and their children with a new element added to third stage - TIME AND ATTUNMENT.
LOTUS BIRTH, the book and the DVD, are educational tools generous in resource and reference. They give us the who, the why, the how to, and the implications for humankind if we don't slowdown and make a radical paradigm shift. These people have!
