The idea of placenta printing seemed wonderful to me when I first heard about it. Its the most vital organ, facilitating the baby growth and two way communication between the baby and mommy. Yet its the most ignored organ in medical science. Many a times I have seen the doctor check the placenta and then discard it as "bio waste".
On the other hand my birth friend Janet Chawla was all excited about a project on the placenta. The midwives stories of resuscitate the baby with the placenta, the midwives rich tradition around it, the stories from other cultures where it was considered the second mother, or the baby's twin.
Recently I was supporting a woman who had a long labour and after 37 hours was facing a C section. Her perfect birth had spun on its head and landed face first. As she broke down and faced her worst case scenario, I desperately wanted to make it birth for her.
However, it was absolutely impossible to leave out the bitter disappointment of failure and fatigue and look at birth. It seemed important to let her be selfish in that moment, to grieve what could not be, before moving on to the next step.
Major surgery is a huge mountain to over look, to see the birth of the baby. Kind of the same way as the sterile partion that is erected seperating the mother, awake and aware, from the surgical site itself.
Two things I did in that OT that afternoon.
Firstly, I took a video of the birth of the baby... not the surgery. Infact it turned out to be the footage from when the baby emerged and cried. Somehow the angle and timing was such that the C section was not on the tape at all.
Secondly, I did a placenta painting for them. Taking a print each with the blood and then with paint, this is singualrily the most beautiful piece of art I have ever done. Loving framed and ready to watch over their baby, just like in the womb, the parents have taken to this painting.
It also brought home the fact that while things did not go the way they wanted it to ... it was the birth of their baby
Nice Divya, well said!
ReplyDeleteI have also done placenta prints for parents, you are right the placenta is the babies twin and companion for 10months, it should be honored...however that may be. In New Mexico the parents would always take the placenta home and plant a tree with it, as the tree grows so does the child...
love to you
Red