Has/is anyone encapsulating their own placenta?

[blessedmama59]

There are a few ladies that do it locally, but I have been doing a little reading and it seems simple enough to do it ourselves. I kind of feel as though it's pretty sacred, and letting someone else handle it kind of worries me..and I'm definitely up to saving however much money it would cost to have someone else do it. I found a sort of tutorial on it, with pictures, and all it basically involved was steaming the placenta for a few minutes, cutting it into thin strips, dehydrating it, grinding it with other herbs, then filling the capsules. Have any of you ladies done it or are you planning on it? If so, do you have any good sources, tips, etc? I mentioned it to hubby and he's all for doing it ourselves..even if he has to do all the bloody work while I cuddle up with the babe :) I just wouldn't know exactly what herbs and how much to buy, and I'm kind of unsure about how to fill the capsules without making a huge mess? TIA!

[greenmama66]

I thought about doing it myself this time but I'd have to go downstairs- clean it, slice it  and to be honest I know I'll just end up having it sit in fridge until I get around to doing it. My oldest daughter did offer doing it for me- I shall see how she feels but just in case I did find a specialist who charges 75 for the entire service so I may go that way. I just know I will be very tired and I usually stay in bed with baby for a week not doing anything but nursing so I don't want to expend my energies. Maybe a friend would be willing to do this for you at your home?

Usually the placenta is cleaned, then steamed with ginger, lemon and hot pepper, Then it's sliced and dehydrated. Some feel just slicing and dehydrating is a better option (more raw) and most use an encapsulating device.

[blessedmama59]

Originally Posted by greenmama66 

I thought about doing it myself this time but I'd have to go downstairs- clean it, slice it  and to be honest I know I'll just end up having it sit in fridge until I get around to doing it. My oldest daughter did offer doing it for me- I shall see how she feels but just in case I did find a specialist who charges 75 for the entire service so I may go that way. I just know I will be very tired and I usually stay in bed with baby for a week not doing anything but nursing so I don't want to expend my energies. Maybe a friend would be willing to do this for you at your home?

Usually the placenta is cleaned, then steamed with ginger, lemon and hot pepper, Then it's sliced and dehydrated. Some feel just slicing and dehydrating is a better option (more raw) and most use an encapsulating device.

My mom will be here for the birth and afterwards, so I am sure she would help..atleast with the actual encapsulating part. She's a little weirded out about blood..and she has no idea that I'm wanting to encapsulate my placenta, so I need to explain that first lol I'm going to ask a doula friend of mine how much she would charge me just in case. I do worry about being too tired or enveloped in baby mooning and nursing to do anything else. I know with my DDs birth, I felt like a million dollars afterwards..so I'm hoping for the same with this one. I know there are different ways of doing it, and I was wondering about the whole steaming part..as it seems this could possibly "kill" a lot of the beneficial stuff. On the tutorial I read, she explained that you could fill the capsules with your hands..I'm just not sure how without making a huge mess.

[bignerpie]

I did it for my sister, and I plan to do it for myself in September. We bought this little thing to fill the capsules: http://www.luckyvitamin.com/p-21544-capsule-connections-the-capsule-machine-for-filling-00?green=24470678300&

It was really easy to use and not very expensive. This is the website I used for instructions: http://www.cafemom.com/journals/read/1577334/Placenta_Encapsulation_Instructions_w_Pictures

That would be great if your husband would help you! Most of the time spent is waiting for the placenta to steam and waiting for it to dehydrate, so there is a lot of down time. I'm planning to tackle it myself with a newborn, but I'll probably plan it for a day that my husband will be home just in case I need some help.

Steaming with hot peppers, lemon, and ginger is the Traditional Chinese Medicine way of preparing it. It has something to do with raw food being cooling, so it needs to be steamed to make it a warm food because that's what the mother needs postpartum. I think it just comes down to personal preference/beliefs.

[bignerpie]

Originally Posted by greenmama66 

I did find a specialist who charges 75 for the entire service so I may go that way.

$75 is a steal! My doula charges $175.

[Jaimee]

There's a helpful thread in the Birth Professionals forum...maybe check that out too.  Many bake it over night and smash it instead of steaming/dehydrating.

[cinderella08]

There has been excellent advice given so far!

I encapsulate as part of my services offered as a doula.  $175 is what I charge, and others in the area charge between $225 and $300.

For families who want to do the encapsulation themselves, I love this tutorial posted above -  http://www.cafemom.com/journals/read/1577334/Placenta_Encapsulation_Instructions_w_Pictures

[jessica_lizette]

I did mine and my best friend's in 2009. They were both pretty easy. I steamed them with ginger, lemon and cayenne, sliced them into thin pieces, dehydrated with the oven on low and the door cracked open, and ground them up. I don't have an ecapsulator but it wasn't too tricky to do it by hand. I just put the powder in large bowls and scooped it up with the capsules, and put them together over the bowl. It would have probably been quicker to use an encapsulator but it wasn't bad.

[blessedmama59]

Thanks, ladies. I believe I will do it the TCM way. The cafestir article was the tutorial I had read that convinced me we could just do it ourselves. I bought 250 capsules (hope that's enough) and a little thing that fills the capsules.

[Mulvah]

Originally Posted by jessica_lizette 

I did mine and my best friend's in 2009. They were both pretty easy. I steamed them with ginger, lemon and cayenne, sliced them into thin pieces, dehydrated with the oven on low and the door cracked open, and ground them up. I don't have an ecapsulator but it wasn't too tricky to do it by hand. I just put the powder in large bowls and scooped it up with the capsules, and put them together over the bowl. It would have probably been quicker to use an encapsulator but it wasn't bad.

Can you share how the smell was and how time-consuming it was using the oven?  I'm really tempted to do it myself, but I want to be realistic about it.

(I will buy the encapsulator mentioned upthread.)

[cat13]

I know what you mean, I am planning on doing it myself but was a little worried about having the energy/stamina to do it right after baby is born. So I've been talking about it a little bit to DH here and there for the last 6 months, and I think he's finally on board that it's not as gross as he first thought, so I've enlisted him to "help."  Little does he know right now, but this means that I'll probably get all the supplies out, and then sit in my cozy chair that is next to the kitchen and talk with him as he does all the work and all the clean up.

FWIW, besides just talking about it over and over again, I think what finally won him over was the lowered risk of hemmoraging and PPD. And I bought him a fancy new coffee grinder so I could use his old one for the cause!

[L'lee]

Thanks for posting info on Instructions and tools to use, plus the TCM reasoning!

I tried to do this last time, by baking the placenta, and I think I overcooked it. It smelled so disgusting that I threw the dried pieces in the freezer in a baggie (they're still in the freezer after over 5 yrs!). I feel like I wasted it!

Maybe this time I'll try steaming it and then using the dehydrator, since we have one for dehydrating fruits and veggies anyways. I was thinking about going the route of chopping the raw placenta into tiny pieces and using it in smoothies, but now I'm rethinking that since my acupuncturist says my constitution is cold, and I do want the warming effects.