Healing from Birth with Rachana Shivam

In this episode we speak with Rachana Shivam, mother, grandmother, pioneering childbirth educator and advocate for families, doula, primal healing practitioner, principal of the International College of Spiritual Midwifery and author of the leading text on lotus birth, the practice of leaving the umbilical cord intact.

Rachana first became a mother in the mid ‘70s during the winds of change for birth in Australia. As you will hear from Rachana it was a very charged and hopeful time for those advocating for families in birth.

Unfortunately Rachana still sees a lot of parallels with how birth is managed even 40 years later, but during her lengthy and sustained journey she and her colleagues have paved the way for a lot of what we now take for granted in birth, all of which was thought to be crazy at the time: Waterbirth, self-hypnosis and breathing methods for pain management during labour, preparing for birth by examining our own births through rebirthing, Leboyer birth where the focus is on supporting the mother/baby dyad’s process rather than intervening in it.

Rachana shares her experiences of birth and early years of childbirth advocacy.

Other references:
- Rachana Shivam - www.lotusbirth.net
- Prophylactic method for pain relief, also known as the Lamaze Method.
- Dr Graham Farrant, http://www.primal-page.com/gfobit.htm
- Dr Frederick Leboyer, author of Birth Without Violence
- Arthur Janov “Primal Therapy” “The Feeling Child” http://www.primaltherapy.com
- Association For Prenatal And Perinatal Psychology And Health https://birthpsychology.com/
- Another link of interest: "Don’t Cut Baby’s Cord - We Can Be Much Kinder" https://vimeo.com/21315581

A warning if you have children listening, there is brief mention of the old practice of operating on children without anaesthesia (at approx 13’30”), and experiencing orgasm in birth at approx 22’20”.

Produced and presented by Sally Cusack 2019
Copyright PBB Media and Sally Cusack 2019
www.pbbmedia.org