Placental Encapsulation

[cameragirl]

Have any of you had your placenta encapsulated? Did you pay someone to do it, or did you do it yourselves? What was it like? I'm really interested to hear how it went and if it made a difference for you. Thank you.

[hildare]

i did with dd, and i will again in feb!  i feel like it helped, tremendously, as i have really awful mood swings, etc. premenstrually.  i also had a m/c prior to the birth of dd, and had a horror of emotional roller coaster.  so i was willing to try anything to avoid it after birth.

i paid someone, a friend who works for a service that provides placenta encapsulation.  you might find someone by asking midwives or in the 'find your tribe' section here.

you will save the placenta in the fridge-- if you hospital birth put it in your birth plan.  we saved ours even with a c-birth.

according to the law (and it may be a state thing, not sure) you have to be the one to transport it home.  that was a problem for us and we had another friend sneak it (b/c i was in hospital for a while with c-birth).  i think my friend said it needed to be encapsulated within a week. 

what she does, i think (i wasn't there), is go to your house to cook it a little.  then it is no longer illegal to transport (?) and then she takes it to her house to dry with her equipment.  i have no idea whatsoever about how to do that process.

one thing she did that was cool was make these really neat prints, just by taking watercolor paper or art stock, and laying the placenta on the paper.  it is a really neat thing to have.  she also freeze dried (or just dried, not sure) some of the cord from the inside, and a layer of membrane too. 

the capsules didn't taste like anything and i still have some, they keep in the freezer forever!

good luck!

[AfricanQueen99]

After the birth of my daughter I had *horrible* PPAD and felt suicidal at times.  So, with my son's birth, I had the placenta encapsulated and felt sooo much better.  No PPAD, no mood swings.  In fact, I was happy and refreshed.

I used a local lady to do mine - she picked it up from the hospital and had it ready for me the day I got home.  I still have a few pills in the freezer that I stopped taking when I just didn't feel as if I needed them anymore.

I thought they had a slight odor that I didn't really like, but tolerated.

[MarineWife]

I haven't done it before but I'm doing it this time. Although I've never had trouble with PPD, specifically, I've had chronic depression for years. My MW suggested it to help with both. I'm paying someone else to encapsulate it. I got her contact info from my MW. In addition to capsules, she makes a tincture that she says will last forever as long as it's store properly and I can take whenever I start to have mood swings. I'm hoping it will help me avoid having to take antidepressants ever in the future.

[cameragirl]

What is the smell like? Kind of meaty?

[hildare]

i never noticed any smell with mine. 

[AfricanQueen99]

Originally Posted by cameragirl 

What is the smell like? Kind of meaty?

Kind of meaty and kind of earthy.  Like dirt soaked meat, maybe?  I just remember that I was getting to the point of holding my nose while opening the jar and swallowing.