Placenta Encapsulation!

[bjorker]

If anyone is interested in encapsulating your own placenta, go for it! I just did mine and it's really very easy to do. I'm so glad I did it.

I used the following for a tutorial:
http://tryingtobringadreamtolife.blo...ps-for-at.html

The only thing I had to do differently was freeze the placenta following the birth, because I knew I wouldn't be able to get to it right away. I did the steaming and cutting last night (6 days pp), and put it in the dehydrator (instead of an oven) overnight. Today I ground it in the food processor and have started encapsulating it. One trick to filling the capsules that I learned previously is that you can scoop a little bit of the powder inside and then turn the capsule upside-down over the powder and move it quickly up and down. The powder will compact inside and fill upwards on its own.

Anyway, just thought I'd share in case anyone was interested! I have a history of anxiety (and some depression) and am more than happy to try anything to keep the PPD/etc away.

[Surfacing]

Very cool! Keep us posted on how things are going as you are taking the capsules.

Any closer on a name, btw?

[SpuglyRoo]

I am definitely going to do it this time around. With my first, I swallowed a piece raw shortly after the birth to encourage the bleeding to stop. Because of the problems I had with my milk coming in (it took almost two weeks!) we were to stressed and drained to to the whole encapsulation, so I ended up just swallowing frozen pieces that were hacked off periodically. Rather messy and bizarre, but I do think that it helped with my recovery and emotional stability. Unfortunately, we ended up having to throw it out when we moved shortly after because we couldn't safely move it, and didn't have the time to prepare it properly.

[AmyKT]

Let us know how it works for you, bjorker. I wanted to do my own but DH is squeamish, so I'm paying someone to do it for me. I had bad pp anxiety last time, so I hope this helps.

Spuglyroo, I'd like to eat a chunk right after, too, but I'm not sure I'll get the chance in the hospital. Maybe my best friend will help me while DH isn't looking.

[jennica]

My Mom is doing this for me and my sister (due a week after me). We decided to do the raw method where you either blend the placenta raw and dehydrate, or freeze it raw, slice it really thin, and then dehydrate the slices. I guess with doing it raw you have to really make sure it is fully dehydrated, but other than that it is the same method.

[Oliver'sMom]

I'm paying a local woman to do this for me. It just seemed too labor intensive for me to do on my own after having a baby. Dh thinks he would surely mess it up...

I hemorraged pretty bad with ds and it took nearly a week for my milk to come in, plus I had some ppd...so I'm hoping this will help with all of that.

Let us know how it works out for you!

[mamapsychologist]

My midwife is encapsulating 2/3 of it & I kept the other third. The one I kept I'm using for a raw-placenta berry smoothies & the rest are steamed into a vegetable broth. Can't taste the placenta at all in the smoothie. The steamed placenta tastes like liver & is yummy!

My baby's 3 days old today & my milk came in last night, which is a lot sooner than other times. I'm attributing it to my placenta ingesting as well as baby's constant nursing.

[lrgs]

I still haven't decided if I'm going to do this...........I had a pretty bad bought (sp?) with PPD last time around and I'd really like to avoid it this time. I'm really leaving it to the last minute though........I'd get someone else to do it for me and I haven't even looked into it at all. Anyone here have annecdotal stories about it helping them with PPD?

[Surfacing]

Originally Posted by lrgs

Anyone here have annecdotal stories about it helping them with PPD?

There's a huge thread here on MDC about consuming placenta and it's anti-depressant effects. I think it's either in the Postpartum Depression forum or.... ? Mental health? I'm gonna check... brb...

ETA :
http://www.mothering.com/discussions...d.php?t=361394

[lrgs]

Thank you! Will check that out later.

[neonalee]

This sounds interesting to me, I'll have to do some research. I found placentabenefits website that has people certified to do so. Anyone know how much in general is charged for someone to do the encapsulation? $50? $500?

[bjorker]

I've seen $200 the most, but I've also seen $150 and one person that would do it for $100. It probably depends on your area & how much experience they have.
Posted via Mobile Device

[bjorker]

Woops double post!

[neonalee]

Thanks! If it was something like $500 not worth looking into (only because I couldn't possibly afford it). But those numbers ... I'll look around and see what I find

[AmyKT]

Mine is $150, but I think $250 is the common charge for people listed on the placentabenefits site.

[scline11]

steam vs raw

I know steaming is the traditional Chinese medicine way of doing things but does anyone have an explanation as to why this part is beneficial? It seems like dehydrating it would be sufficient and retain more nutrients.... keeping it more raw. I'm a week past my due date so will be dealing with my placenta any day now. Wondering whether to steam or go raw style. What do you all think?

[jennica]

Originally Posted by scline11

I know steaming is the traditional Chinese medicine way of doing things but does anyone have an explanation as to why this part is beneficial? It seems like dehydrating it would be sufficient and retain more nutrients.... keeping it more raw. I'm a week past my due date so will be dealing with my placenta any day now. Wondering whether to steam or go raw style. What do you all think?

I posted above about doing it raw, but since then have changed my mind. I think we are going to steam it now in the traditional Chinese way. The reason I decided to steam it is because with going raw you have to be really careful about how long you dehydrate it. If you don't do it long enough, it can get moldy and go bad faster. We could just freeze the capsules, but my mom is doing mine and my sisters and I told her she could steam mine and do my sisters raw so she can get experience with both methods (she is thinking of offering the service if it's not too hard to do). Also, when doing it raw, you have to either blend it or freeze it and slice it frozen. Blending it is said to not be as respectful to the placenta and can disturb the energy - if you believe in that sort of thing. The herbs and stuff it is boiled with is also done for the energy balance reasons too I think.

[mamakaryn08]

My midwife's granddaughter did mine for me. She charges $150 normally but she had a delay in getting it back to me by 2 days PP (her usual) and so she charged us $125. I think next time I might try doing it myself, but only if I have a friend or family member willing to help out. We'll see, I guess.

Anyway, she brought it to me on day 3 and I started taking it the morning of day 4. I was experiencing the baby blues and was tearful and emotional those two days and I felt loads better by midday on day 4. Day 5, little to no blues, and today will be day 6. I didn't have PPD with DS1 but I have a history of major depression and though I don't suffer from it anymore, I suppose I'm still at risk so I wanted to take measures to help prevent it.

[AmyKT]

Thanks for sharing your experience, mamakaryn. I have high hopes for a smoother pp emotional recovery this time. Part of it will be experience, but I'm hoping the placenta caps help, as well.