Consuming Ones Placenta

That title got you didn't it?

Now you're thinking that I'm super crunchy or granola and you're also thinking I'm pretty gross. She ate her placenta! But, if you read this post in it's entity and see that it's not like I fried up it up in some butter and scarfed it down AND there are actual benefits to placenta consumption, maybe you'll be less grossed out or even better, a little more informed. 

This all started before I was even pregnant when I read a post by one of my favorite bloggers over at www.mamaandbabylove.com. Now, I don't want to go casting stones, but Stephanie is pretty granola. She did actually saute and eat her placenta. I imagine that it tasted something like liver. I'm not sure why, but that's what I imagined. Being the liver-hater that I am, that doesn't sound very appetizing. But the research and benefits that she pointed to made it seem like this was a very good thing to do. However, I was present when my BFF Natalie gave birth. I know what a placenta looks like. As I read Stephanie's article, I conjured up that image, and I thought,

I could never eat that.

While pregnant, I gave little thought to placenta consumption because of aforementioned gross analogy to liver.

Fast forward to my final days of pregnancy. A close girlfriend of mine, who had given birth just 6 weeks prior to me and who happened to use my same OB, offhandedly mentioned she had her placenta encapsulated and that it was the absolute best postpartum advice she could give me. 

What?! 

Placenta encapsulation? 

What is this? 

That is a real thing? 

Kandace explained that there is a company in town called BirthWorks and one of their doulas offers placenta encapsulation services. It's consuming your placenta in pill form. 

So before I signed up, I decided to do a little more research. As it turns out, humans are actually one of the only mammals that don’t regularly eat their own placentas. Some researchers believe it must be because the placenta offers some fundamental biological advantage. The placenta contains high levels of things like iron, vitamin B-12 and certain hormones. 

The thought is that the placenta may offer a new mother certain health benefits, like the treatment of postpartum depression. It has been suggested in the past that postpartum depression in some women is spurred by the quickly shifting levels of female hormones after giving birth, and that by eating the placenta, the hormones will stabilize and postpartum depression can therefore be prevented.

Another thought is that the placenta can offer some degree of pain relief due to certain chemicals contained within the tissue. In ancient Chinese medicine, placental extracts are commonly mixed with herbs taken to relieve pain, stimulate milk production, and even to cure impotence. Additional potential benefits of a placenta pill included the ability to improve breast milk supply, increase energy and even prevent aging. 

Now, I know if you google placentophaiga (the scientific word for the practice of eating one's own placenta) that you'll come up with a myriad of information from sites that promote the practice by saying you must eat it and if you don't you're depriving yourself of nature-intended beneficial nutrients, to stark criticism and  flat out opposition.

Lance was pretty skeptical. Especially since I threw this on him literally one day before my due date. Plus he thought it was weird. And gross. But he acquiesced on this and allowed me to make the decision. Which I decided to go for it as I lay in my hospital bed counting contractions. Talk about last minute.

I've read where some hospitals have specific guidelines on releasing a placenta to a mother. For me, I had no problem. I simply told my L&D nurse that I wanted my placenta and she put it in a medical plastic bowl with a lid and put it on ice in the sink until my placenta encapsulation specialist could come retrieve it.

Shortly after I had given birth to Crosby, the gal I had called hours before showed up. She took my placenta and dehydrated and encapsulated it. The next day, she brought my placenta pills to me up at the hospital. I took 2 pills, three times a day for the first week. Followed by 2 pills twice a day for the second and finally one pill twice daily for the third week. Because the placenta is dehydrated, there is no taste. No grossness. I swear.

Since I have nothing to compare it to (i.e. I've only given birth once) I don't know for sure if it had all these miraculous affects. I will say that while I was pretty teary the first week or so, the baby blues faded fairly quickly and once my milk came in, I had no trouble with supply! My friend Kandace has given birth twice, once without taking the pills and once with. She swears there was a huge difference in her emotional state and energy levels. I'm a believer.

And, let's face it. I'll do anything that helps my little dude or helps me take better care of him.

So, I shared all this, not to say, "you must do this, it's the only way." But to explain what I did and why I did it. Take what you want, and leave the rest :)

Love,

Carmen