Flax baskets woven for placenta

Te Kokiri weavers holding ipu whenua, woven flax baskets for burying placenta. Photo / Ashleigh Collis

Woven flax baskets, called ipu whenua, are being offered as a culturally responsive birthing practice for all women who wish to take home and bury their placenta.

The initiative facilitated by MidCentral DHB Pregnancy and Parenting Information and Education Services was contracted to Barnardos, whose Bumps to Babies team leader Jenny Warren said her interest in supporting women during their pregnancy to parenthood lead her to look at ways Maori women could be supported.

She said 33 per cent of women who gave birth in the Midcentral district identify as Maori, and Horowhenua would feature highly in that representation.

"The burial of the placenta is becoming more meaningful not just to Maori but to non-Maori," she said.

Every woman who births at the unit is asked what they would like to do with their placenta. If they wish to take it home they will be offered an ipu whenua to put it in."

Jenny Warren

Horowhenua's Te Kokiri weavers took part in the community project, making 60 ipu whenua in one evening. The ipu whenua will be given to mothers and whanau at Horowhenua Birthing Unit.

Four years ago, Te Kokiri also helped weave wahakura (woven sleeping pods) to be gifted to woman who gave birth at the unit.

Warren said these initiatives were great examples of community collaboration, promoting a positive health message and relationship between the community and maternity unit.
She said she was greatly appreciative of the 25 weavers who gave their time and energy to provide this latest taonga to whanau.

"This is really exciting and hopefully the start of continual collaboration.

"Every woman who births at the unit is asked what they would like to do with their placenta.

"If they wish to take it home they will be offered an ipu whenua to put it in," she said.

"There is a short narrative that we are [providing] with the ipu whenua, which speaks to why they might be interested and the culturally appropriate way of how they might wish to bury the placenta.

"It's about offering the opportunity to people who are interested."

When a baby is born to Maori, it is customary to bury the whenua, or placenta, in the earth, traditionally in earthen pots or woven baskets (ipu whenua) so it can be returned to Papatuanuku (Mother Earth).

The whenua is often buried in a place with ancestral connection. This act has deep cultural and spiritual importance, as the land is a source of identity for Maori.

With the belief they are direct descendants of Papatuanuku, Maori see themselves as not only of the land, but as the land.

The word whenua has a dual meaning, as the placenta - the tree of life that supports a baby through pregnancy, and also as the land that connects all people.

The practice of placenta burial was effectively removed from Maori during colonial times, with placentas treated as medical waste and the burial of whenua considered primitive, unhygienic and superstitious.

In 1984 a group called Te Whanau o Maungarongo promoted the idea of recreating ipu whenua and today it is common practice not only for Maori and within the Maori midwifery community, but also among non-Maori families in New Zealand.

A prayer for the burial: He taonga no te whenua, me hoki ano ki te whenua (What is given by the land should return to the land).