Placenta is not something you may want to look up on Google images. However, Australian photographer Emma Jean Nolan not only snapped a photo of a Maori newborn Harper with his placenta still attached, she also spelled out ‘LOVE’ with his umbilical cord.
In Maori culture, placenta has a spiritual meaning. The Maori have one word – whenua – for “placenta” and “land”, and the umbilical cord is seen as the link between the newborn and the mother earth. To honor the connection, Harper’s placenta will be buried under a native Tortora tree in New Zealand, his mother Jolene Spies’s homeland.
“I wanted to show what a physiological birth looks like as most people have never seen a baby still connected to their placenta,” said Nolan. “The placenta is not something that is appreciated or honored in the Western culture. It is generally discarded, ignored and considered disgusting. However without the placenta none of us would be here.”
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“I wanted to show what a physiological birth looks like as most people have never seen a baby still connected to their placenta”
“The placenta is not something that is appreciated or honored in the Western culture. It is generally discarded, ignored and considered disgusting”
“As a Maori baby his placenta will now be returned to the land. The word ‘whenua’ relates to the placenta and to the land. Whenua (placenta) is returned to the whenua (land) with the pito (umbilical cord) the link between the newborn and papatuanuku (mother earth).”
