THE LOTUS FLOWER

THE LOTUS FLOWER.

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Now, this is a marmite thing. I remember when I was pregnant with my first baby and I was attending hypnobirthing classes, listening to my practitioner Joan Mills talking about the visualisations of a lotus flower during childbirth could allow your body to open more comfortably, and so on. I understood it, but I didn’t take much notice of it. I liked the imagery though. I love flowers but didn’t think the visualisation would help me during labour, so I didn’t practice it throughout pregnancy.

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Now, I kid you not, when my baby was being born, as she was descending (with no pushing,) It honestly felt like I was unravelling inside, unfolding, millimetre by millimetre, almost like in slow motion. It felt so cushiony and the only way I can describe it is like the opening of a lotus flower! I try to describe the sensations with my hands and even when I do that it looks like the opening of a lotus flower.

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I met a midwife once, one who had never given birth, and she hated the Lotus Flower analogy. She said “I have seen so many babies be born but not once have I seen a vagina open like a lotus flower.”

I said “It’s not about how it looks, it’s about how it feels.”

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I have given birth to two children now and it wasn’t just a fluke the first time, I felt the unfolding the second time around too.

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I will let you in to a little secret…it’s my favourite bit of labour!

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