Consuming your placenta. Your experience?

[Lucy&Jude'sMama]

I'm considering doing my own placenta encapsulation. I've read about the benefits and haven't heard anything bad about doing it. What I'm wondering is if it's worth it? I'm having a hospital birth () and I'll be mentioning it to my midwifes today to get their take on it. I will probably have to do it myself as there isn't a service in my area and I don't think my partner will be willing to do it for me. LOL.

So if you've consumed your placenta... (via placenta encapsulation, smoothie..etc)

Why did you decided on it?

What did it help with? Or what do you believe it helped you with specifically?

If you felt it helped you with something, is that the reason you decided on it in the first place or were you surprised by what it helped with? (Uh am I making sense here? )

Was it worth it?

Would you do it again?


Specifically for placenta encapsulation...

When did you start taking the pills?

Did you make them yourself?

How often did you take the pills?

What's the #1 thing you believe it helped you with the most?



Thanks for your time!!! :-)

Ok and one more question just for kicks... When explaining to someone who knows nothing about consuming your own placenta... what do you say? Any funny stories to share?

[MammaB21]

I had a piece of placenta raw right after birth and a raw piece each day for the next two days. I was waiting on it being encapsulated so after that I switched to taking pills. I'll answer your questions one at a time.

Why did you decide on it? I think it's totally natural to consume your placenta. All other mammals do it and I believe it to be beneficial for health purposes. Going into it, I expected it to help with postpartum bleeding and baby blues.

What did it help with? I think it help with my energy level and healing. Physically I felt really great after this birth. My small tear healed very quickly and I felt like my uterus went back to place faster this time.

Are you surprised with what it helped with? Not really. I was expecting it could help with just about everything after birth.

Was it worth it? Yes. Partly because it wasn't hard to do. I didn't do it. My mom offered to encapsulate it for me so she brought it home and did all the work. But she actually really enjoyed doing it.

Would you do it again? To be perfectly honest, I couldn't really tell if it helped for the baby blues or the bleeding. I still bleed for about 5 weeks, although I'd say the bleeding was lighter all together. I actually experience MORE baby blues this time than with my first. But that could be attributed to having a 4 year old to care for as well, so it's hard to say if the placenta helped or not. There were days that felt it was actually making it worse. It's possible, since along with all of it's healing powers it's also packed full of hormones and everyone will react to those hormones differently. But with all of that said, yes I would do it again. I feel like it had some noticeable benefits and I'm sure it had benefits that went unnoticed as well.

When did you start taking the pills? I started on day 3. That is when my mom was done making them. The placenta has to dehydrate for 6 hours so you won't be able to start until day 2 at the earliest. That is why I also consumed a piece raw right after birth. It went down really easy and was virtually flavorless. We cut small pieces and put them in the freezer so on day 1 and 2 I had a piece to swallow as well. The pills actually were more flavored then the raw pieces I swallowed. The pills have a very irony taste and quite a strong aftertaste. To be honest, I didn't even taste the raw piece. I just swallowed it with a glass of wine. (P.S. the pills are also said to work better with a glass of wine.)

Did you make them yourself? No, my mom did. You can make them from raw or cooked placenta. She did my raw. She dehydrated it for 6 hours and then ground it up by hand as to not interfere with the integrity of the natural energy. (Some people don't like to introduce electronic energy to the placenta by using grinders).

How often did you take the pills? Two pills at a time 3 times a day for the first 3 weeks postpartum. As often as needed after that. I'm now taking two pills once a day before bedtime. I decided to take them before bed so that any hormone shift is lost in sleep, yet I'm still getting the physical benefits provided. I have plenty of pills left.

#1 thing it helped with? Healing. It also just felt good to be doing something productive. Something that I knew was healthy for me.

And for your last question, I usually just ask people why they think it's so weird. I just explain the health benefits and add in that mammals have been doing it for decades. I'm sure somewhere along the lines of evolution humans stopped consuming their own placentas. Probably when we learned how to cook a steak for the postpartum mother instead. But that doesn't mean that it isn't still beneficial. It may not be necessary like it used to be, but it can't hurt, right?

I do have one funny story to share as well. My DP is in a band and his guitarist is a long time friend of ours (we'll call him J). He was over visiting shortly before my little guy was born. We had the birth tub set up and the house prepared for our home birth. J was talking to me about the upcoming birth and asking questions. J asked me, "So are you planning on eating your placenta or anything?" Surprised by his openness I replied, "Actually, yes, my mom is planning on encapsulating it for me so I can take it in pill form." The look of discuss on this mans face was priceless. He quickly said, "WHAT!!! I was joking!!! Ewe, ewe, ewe......I was totally joking.....don't tell me those things!!!" I laughed and told him he should expect it from me, and don't ask if you don't want to know.

[kittywitty]

I plan on eating mine. Smoothies the first two days and then encapsulating the rest. I have not before (but had a piece of mine in my mouth after #4) but have heard good things.

[marzipan84]

To my knowledge, the reason that other mammals consume their afterbirth has more to do with preventing the smell of decomposing flesh to keep predators away from the newborn and less for any nutritional value. I'm not trying to discourage you, and honestly it's none of my business, I'm more so giving my two cents to the "Is it worth it?" question.

[kittywitty]

There ARE benefits in eating your placenta.

"The placenta contains high levels of prostaglandin which stimulates involution (an inward curvature or penetration, or, a shrinking or return to a former size) of the uterus, in effect cleaning the uterus out. The placenta also contains small amounts of oxytocin which eases birth stress and causes the smooth muscles around the mammary cells to contract and eject milk."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placentophagy

http://www.mothering.com/discussions...light=placenta

http://www.gentlebirth.org/archives/eatplcnt.html

http://www.mothering.com/discussions...d.php?t=541017

http://www.mothering.com/discussions...d.php?t=829522

http://placentabenefits.info/research.asp

[MammaB21]

Originally Posted by marzipan84

To my knowledge, the reason that other mammals consume their afterbirth has more to do with preventing the smell of decomposing flesh to keep predators away from the newborn and less for any nutritional value. I'm not trying to discourage you, and honestly it's none of my business, I'm more so giving my two cents to the "Is it worth it?" question.

That is definitely one reason mammals consume their placentas. But birth is hard work and I can speak from personal experience that birth is usually followed by extreme hunger. Mama mammals in the wild can't get up and leave their little ones to run out and hunt down a meal, so they use their placenta to cure that hunger. The way I understood it was that the placenta is packed with nutrients so the mama can go days without having to leave the nest. But I could be wrong. Maybe I'll go look for links.

[Mosaic]

Why did you decided on it? I had crushing PPD after DD1 and was willing to try anything/everything to prevent it the 2nd time around.

What did it help with? Or what do you believe it helped you with specifically? I just felt more even-keeled overall... none of the crazy highs and crazy lows I had the first time.

If you felt it helped you with something, is that the reason you decided on it in the first place or were you surprised by what it helped with? I can't say that I took it and know, inequivocally, that it was the capsules that helped. So I can't say I was surprised that it helped.

Was it worth it? Absolutely!

Would you do it again? Absolutely!

Specifically for placenta encapsulation...

When did you start taking the pills? I got them 4 days pp and started taking them immediately.

Did you make them yourself? Nope, found a wonderful local woman to encapsulate them for me!

How often did you take the pills? It varies. The forementioned wonderful lady gave me directions. I think I took 2 capsules 3 x's/day for a few days, then twice a day, until I was down to one/day. I, personally, wanted to take them especially RIGHT away to help with the hormone crash and still have lots to help me when I went back to work at 11 weeks pp, because that's when my world fell apart the first time. I managed to get about 180 capsules, and DD is almost 5 mo and I'm still taking one daily!

What's the #1 thing you believe it helped you with the most? First, I think it has just evened me out and helped avoid the rage and crazy lows that I had last time. Honestly, I also think it was being proactive, taking a step to prevent/avoid PPD, and believing that it could work. I have been on a very, very low dose of sertraline since the PPD, throughout pregnancy/birth/nursing, etc., so it's hard to say what is helping more. But this pp time has been very stressful, since DD2 has some special needs and DD1 still needs attention, plus DH works second shift AND I worked from home while on maternity leave, but I'm weathering all this EXTREMELY well. I expected needing to up my (very very low) dose to a (still awfully low) dose, but haven't needed to at all.

[Mosaic]

BTW, I have no idea where the article is, but I remember reading that research indicated that placentaphagy is NOT specifically from hunger, predator-defense, etc. Mammals ate it even when presented with tastier food, and even when protected from predators. I forget the details, but I remember still thinking that was cool.

And I don't really have any funny stories because I didn't tell many people. But I did find the lady who could do it while I had contractions 3 min. apart!! We'd played phone tag and I managed to catch her for a very brief "Hi, we've never met but can you encapsulate my placenta tonight?" conversation! FWIW, I googled and didn't really find anybody, but I asked in my tribe area and got an excellent recommendation quickly.