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After researching the benefits of cord blood, Vanessa Fisher, a Fort Worth mother, decided that she was going to take it one step further and have a full-on lotus birth with her newborn son, Ashton.

What exactly is a lotus birth?

It’s when you don’t cut the umbilical cord from the newborn right away and let it fall off naturally instead. The process takes between 3 and 10 days.

In a Facebook post, Vanessa explained why she decided to have a lotus birth.

“[I] trust the natural process that God created for child bearing,” she wrote. “[It] allows for the health benefits associated with complete placental blood transfer.”

The Mother also explained that having a lotus birth can help with the bonding process, saying that keeping the placenta attached makes for a more “fluid transition” from the womb to the real world.

Vanessa told POPSUGAR Moms that as soon as she learned of all the benefits in keeping the placenta attached, she added it to her birth plan:

“I found that there were mothers who left the cord attached for several minutes or hours after birth to allow for the placenta to stop pulsating,” she said. “This would ensure that there was time for a full placental blood transfer to the baby. The idea really resonated with me because I was already set on embracing a very natural approach to this pregnancy, and cutting out any unnecessary medical interference was important to me. It was very early in the pregnancy that we decided that this would be added to our birth plan.”

After delivering Ashton at home, Vanessa quickly grabbed a homemade placenta bag which her cousin made her and placed the placenta in it with sea salt and herbs to preserve it.

However, before she could put it in the bag, it needed to be prepped first: “The placenta, of course, isn’t beautiful in appearance, but it is rich in purpose. It was providing life to my sweet baby for all those months! How powerful. My midwife washed and inspected it, then we dried it.”

After nine days, the umbilical cord detached, and Vanessa hopes to bury the cord.

Would you consider having a lotus birth? Or would you prefer to have the umbilical cord snipped right away?

Tragic News: 8-Year-Old Dies From Flesh-Eating Bacteria

A boy from eastern Oregon died in Portland over the weekend after an eight-day battle with flesh-eating bacteria.

The boy’s mother, Sara Hebard, told reporters that she wants to warn other parents about how easily and quickly this disease spreads, explaining that the tragedy all started when her son fell off his bike.

She explained that her 8-year-old son Liam Flanagan was riding his bike on the driveway of his family’s farm in pilot rock when he took a bad fall.

The boy went to the emergency room in nearby Pendleton with a bloody thigh wound near his groin.

Hebard said that Liam was stitched up with seven stitches and that she thought that should have been the end of it, but Liam complained of pain.

At first, Hebard said that she treated it with Tylenol, but the pain seemed to get worse – much worse.

Hebard said that they took him back to the hospital in Pendleton where he had emergency surgery.

The boy was then airlifted to Doernbecher Children’s Hospital in Portland where he underwent several more surgeries.

Flesh-eating bacteria can spread very quickly. Doctors tried to cut it out from muscle and tissue stretching from Liam’s ankle to his armpit.

Hebard is still in shock that all of this started when her son fell off his bicycle.

“It wasn’t a big deal. It wasn’t a bad one. It just needed a few stitches is all, that’s it,”she told FOX 12. “And he was taking it like a trooper. I mean, how… how… that’s what I ask – how? And there’s just no answer.”

Liam Flanagan died last Sunday in Portland. He was a second-grader at Pilot Rock Elementary School.

Hebard said that Liam was a sweet, kind boy who never made an enemy and made everyone around him happy. Her advice to other parents is simple.

“I would have to say for one, hug your children tight because you never know how quickly it goes, and then to pay attention to them and don’t just take for granted it could just be a simple accident,” she said. “And to spread awareness because people don’t know. I had never even heard of this before.”