Explain it to me like I'm a 5 year old, please....

[RiverSky]

...not UC, but what to do with the placenta and the cord!!!

So, let's jump to when baby is born, in water, I/we pull baby up and ... what?

I want to wait until the cord stops pulsing, no pulling on cord, then what?

We plan to probably just use boiled white shoe laces and strong stainless steel scissors that we have (cleaned with rubbing alcohol, then boiled for 30 minutes). Do we need a clamp or two?

I am vaguely considering eating some of the placenta if I'm bleeding too much or something, but am not sure I can go through with it. LOL! Definitely plan to save it and freeze it, for possible encapsulation and/or planting.

What did you do? What do you plan? Can you give me a simple straight
forward explanation that will stop my fixation upon this part of the process?

Thank you!

[amyjeans]

it is a pretty cool part of the process. You''re not in the hospital, so your germs are everywhere anyway (good germs). Boiling the scissors and string is a good idea anyway. Just keep the placenta near the baby so there is no undo stress on the baby's belly button. Wrap it in a towel, and usually- if you don't do a lotus birth (let the cord detatch naturally) You can tie off the cord right away and snip between the laces, or clamps- whichever you prefer. Go about 2 inches up from the baby's belly.
Wait until the cord turns white, that way no more blood is moving through the cord. I honestly didn't give it much thought after the birth. DH took care of all that but that is what he did.
once detatched, you can use the same scissors to snip a quarter sized piece to place under your tongue- then swallow with a big glass of water. I was grossed out at first, but then rationalized that eating it was better than hemmoraging! Do what ya gotta do right?
Then you can encapsulate it right away, or wash it clean, then freeze it until you are ready to do it.
hth!

[zoebird]

after the baby was born, the placenta was born. we put it in a bowl. about 7-9 hours after the baby's birth, we cut the cord using our boiled kitchen scissors. no clamps, thread, nothing.

then, we buried the placenta some time later.

[Almi]

I plan on birthing my placenta into a bowl (I found a nice, wide bowl for just 75 cents at a random hardware store, lol). Since I'm having twins, I may decide to clamp and cut the cord of the first, so I can focus on birthing the second baby, but we'll see. Otherwise I'd definitely leave it for a few hours and then just cut it without even tying it off. It's nice to have cord clamps or something on hand though, just in case, I would think.

Not sure if I'd go ahead and eat some right off the bat, but I guess it would probably be best to do that BEFORE I started hemorrhaging, right?

I actually have a question, too, while we're on the subject...

I want to encapsulate my placenta...do you have to do anything special to it, or will it automatically grind down to a powder once dehydrated? (I mean, with a mortar and pestle of course.) I just can't see a piece of "meat" being able to be powdered that easily?

[amyjeans]

I used my food processor and after it was dehydrated. I ground it into a fine powder, but there were some stubborn pieces that were still small enough to fit into a capsule.

[RiverSky]

Such great info! Thank you all so much. I feel very reassured.
Posted via Mobile Device

[Almi]

Originally Posted by amyjeans

I used my food processor and after it was dehydrated. I ground it into a fine powder, but there were some stubborn pieces that were still small enough to fit into a capsule.

You used a food processor before or after you dehydrated it? So it does grind into a powder easily once dried?

[amyjeans]

I don't have the instructions anymore but I remember that we washed it, boiled it, sliced it thin, dehydrated it on a cookie sheet in a low oven for HOURS! then ground it up once thoroughly dried, in the processor. it was pretty easy, but some pieces were harder than others. As long as I could get it down to pill sized pieces, theyfit fine in the capsules.
We used PBI stuff.

[Almi]

Oh, okay. Thanks!

[Orro]

explain please!!

you cut a piece of the Placenta AFTER the baby and placenta are detached right!?

sorry if it sounds stupid ,its just that its going to be the first time i eat placenta - the first one was buried under a red raspberries tree.

[amyjeans]

I'm pretty sure it was after dh cut the cord.

[Orro]

Ha!
as i suspected

jolly thank you

[erthe_mama]

Those who are interested may pm me their email address so I can send them my favourite placenta recipe(s) if ya like. (I'm a Placenta Encapsulation Specialist, so if you lived in my area, I'd even do it for you!!)