Lotus birth in American upper class families

http://sciencebasedparenting.com/2009/01/19/a-skeptical-look-at-lotus-birth/
When I was doing research on natural childbirth, I encountered a new fad, the Lotus Birth. Although it is still small, and practiced mostly in birthing centers and in at-home births, it confirms a few of Margaret K. Nelson’s points in her research article from this week’s reading.
Nelson asserts that middle class women are often advocates of more natural childbirth and that they educate themselves about birthing possibilities. What happens in a Lotus Birth is that, instead of having the umbilical cord cut and the placenta thrown away after birth, the midwife or doctor leaves them both attached and they are left to fall off naturally over the next few days.
The Lotus Birth is certainly appealing to middle class and upper class families, because as Margaret Nelson found, they are more likely to want natural births and will latch on to any practice that claims to give their babies even a small advantage in life. The research blog that I found on Lotus Birth states that it can help to transmit nutrients to the newborn for a longer period of time, but also that it is unnecessary to keep the placenta attached for that long. I find it interesting that this could actually catch on with upper and middle class classes, since the few pictures I’ve seen of a baby with an attached placenta are not appealing, but now that I read Nelson’s article, I do not find this surprising at all. When something is “new” and “natural,” with any supposed health benefits attached to it, there will certainly be people willing to try it, and the upper and middle classes will lead the way.