Eating your Placenta to prevent PPD... - Page 8

[CharlotteSometimes]

Hi -

I did a lotus birth with dd and then we steamed and dehydrated the placenta (which is still sitting in the freezer, ahem). I'm not sure if I had PPD or not afterwards, but I do know that I will do ANYTHING to avoid feeling the way I did for that first month or so. My midwife has recommended raw placenta smoothies, but my question is, what is the best way to space them? I was thinking that maybe I should cut the placenta into a bunch of pieces, freeze most of them, and then make a smoothie a day until it's all gone, like maybe a month or so? I really feel like if I can make it through the first 6 weeks, I'll be ok....

I would do capsules but I have a feeling I would never get around to filling the darned things again, and I don't believe there is anyone in the area who could do it for me. Also, can I do anything with the powder from dd's placenta? I mean, dh (I love my man) steamed it with lemongrass and ginger and then baked it really low for a long time, so I imagine it has quite the shelf life now....I'm thinking that maybe if I don't feel 100% after I've eaten all of this baby's placenta, I could pop some of hers?

TIA!

[Gale Force]

Gitti -- The nutrient value would decrease over that long period of time and she really needs it now more anyway, depression or not. She'll recover that much more quickly.

[Gitti]

DD said

[luckylady]

What a great thread! I was coming here to seek an answer to this question! There is someone here who will encapsulate it for me - thank goodness.

I can't even handle touching ground beef or chicken without gagging.

I am just worried about "placenta burps" LOL - like vitamin burps.

Oh my. I am willing to try ANYTHING to prevent PPD this time! Eating it - raw or cooked - would be to much for me personally...

[Gitti]

:bump

[maylea_moon]

*bump*

[LionTigerBear]

Wow, thanks for bumping this, you gals rock!

I had heard of eating a bite of the placenta immediately after giving birth to prevent hemhoragging but I knew I could never do that. Eww! But all these new ideas . . . I like!! And I had no idea it could aid in preventing PPD, which I had with my first.

I am having my next baby in a hospital birth center and I'm sure they won't mind putting my placenta aside for me. Should we bring a plastic zippy bag for it or what??? I think I will send hubby home as soon as I am feeling all settled and have him make me a smoothie with it (we live 5 min. from the hospital so he can literally drive home, make it for me, and be back in a few minutes!) Encapsulating it sounds like a good idea too, but way too much work, so it wouldn't really happen. And besides, I do believe in the benefit of eating raw organ meats anyway (Weston A. Price/NT). However I am not in the habit of eating raw organ meats, it is still too culturally gross to me, so I would have to hide it in something else.

So, for those of you who ate it as a smoothie, how did you prepare that? What did you add? I am thinking maybe some yogurt and/or organic ice cream, but not sure what else to add that would make it taste good. That is, would adding fruit or berries just taste gross or would it taste better? Those of you who tried it in a smoothie, please share!!! Thanks!

[runes]

Originally Posted by Caitlin320

Wow, thanks for bumping this, you gals rock!

I had heard of eating a bite of the placenta immediately after giving birth to prevent hemhoragging but I knew I could never do that. Eww! But all these new ideas . . . I like!! And I had no idea it could aid in preventing PPD, which I had with my first.

I am having my next baby in a hospital birth center and I'm sure they won't mind putting my placenta aside for me. Should we bring a plastic zippy bag for it or what??? I think I will send hubby home as soon as I am feeling all settled and have him make me a smoothie with it (we live 5 min. from the hospital so he can literally drive home, make it for me, and be back in a few minutes!) Encapsulating it sounds like a good idea too, but way too much work, so it wouldn't really happen. And besides, I do believe in the benefit of eating raw organ meats anyway (Weston A. Price/NT). However I am not in the habit of eating raw organ meats, it is still too culturally gross to me, so I would have to hide it in something else.

So, for those of you who ate it as a smoothie, how did you prepare that? What did you add? I am thinking maybe some yogurt and/or organic ice cream, but not sure what else to add that would make it taste good. That is, would adding fruit or berries just taste gross or would it taste better? Those of you who tried it in a smoothie, please share!!! Thanks!

At the hospital where we birthed, they put our placenta in a big styrofoam drink container with a lid. we kept it on ice in our cooler until we left, then in the fridge for a day or so until I had the energy/time to deal with it. I cut about half of it up into approx. 1 inch cubes, put them on a cookie sheet and into the freezer. The rest of it I double bagged in a ziploc and put it in the deep freeze for later if I needed it.

As for flavor of smoothie...I tried to think of my absolute favorite flavor of fruit smoothie and got the ingredients to make that. For me, I absolutely LOOOOOOOOVE the pomegranate blueberry ice blendeds from Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, so to try to recreate it, I bought a pomegranate juice blend, frozen blueberries, and the Vanilla smoothie powder from CB&TL. So I blended the juice with some ice cubes, soymilk, frozen blueberries, a little bit of water and the smoothie powder with a cube of frozen placenta. I did not taste a thing (and I am veg so I was afraid I would detect it), it was so delicious and nourishing and made me feel better almost instantly.

I highly recommend this for new moms.

[4lilfarmers]

i'm glad to hear that you didn't taste it at all... it's my plan to make a placenta smoothie after #2 comes to make the postpardum time a lot smoother than last time. ...but i was pretty nervous about if i'd taste it

[Rockies5]

That just rocks that so many of you would eat your own organs to avoid PPD.

I love my placenta and look at it everyday.

Eating it would GIVE me PPD

I plan to print and memorialize it and then plant it next year/

[my4magpies]

:Puke

IMHO

[janellesmommy]

Thanks for bumping the thread. Eating placenta to avoid PPD came to my mind again a few days ago, and I was thinking about bumping the thread myself. I didn't do it with my first baby because I didn't know about it. I didn't have PPD but I do have depression issues and I don't want to risk it with my next baby. I will GLADLY and thankfully eat my placenta next time. I'll eat it fresh and raw soon after the birth because that sounds a lot less distasteful to me than dealing with complicated recipes and preparation!

[shell024]

Hey I remember this thread, glad to see it bumped again To one of the recent pp, I slightly tasted blood when I put mine under my tongue and then threw it down my throat. Then I drank a BIG glass of water and plenty of fruits to get the taste out.
That said, after experiencing postpartum depression AND slight hemmorhage, I'll eat my placenta next time ASAP, whether or not I am bleeding too much, and then will dehydrate it, grind it and put it in capsules to take daily as a PPD preventative. :
To the grossed out mama: It sounds gross at first if you've never heard of it or think you couldn't stomach it, but when it comes down to it and you're in an emergency, or you refuse to go through ppd again, the ick factor isn't so big any more.

[lunamegn]

I had a little of my placenta. My son was born at home but then we saw something was wrong with his breathing so we took him into the hospital. When we were preparing to go back to the hospital the next morning, I put a chunk of the placenta into a blender along with a banana, some strawberries, soymilk and blended it all together. It only tasted like a strawberry-banana smoothy. I offered a little to my hubby but he declined. I feel like although I experienced a little post traumatic stress, I never got PPD.

I still have our placenta in the freezer. We would like to take it out and bury it somewhere special. I had thought we would bury it on his 1st birthday but that didn't happen. I guess we'll do it when the time feels right.

[sweetangelbrynlie]

How does this help PPD? Is there hormones in the placenta that helps?

That is so cool it help with bleeding! I would eat mine anyday if I needed help to stop bleeding, I think that is just the neatest thing that it works like that.

[Irish_Blue]

Ohhh how I wish I knew about this before!!! I have my placenta in the freezer but it's 5 months old

I've throughly enjoyed reading all 8 pages though, what wonderful advice!! I've heard of taking a bit out of your placenta if your hemorraging but never to help w/ ppd, it makes perfect sense though.

[Gale Force]

Originally Posted by Irish_Blue

Ohhh how I wish I knew about this before!!! I have my placenta in the freezer but it's 5 months old
.

I would eat it. Nutrient loss won't be that great from frozen storage. Who knows what the benefit might be for you.

[Irish_Blue]

Originally Posted by Gale Force

I would eat it. Nutrient loss won't be that great from frozen storage. Who knows what the benefit might be for you.

Really? You think it'd be safe? It was left out for about a day while at the hosp. but then it went right into the deep freeze and has been there ever since.

The reason I thought I wouldn't be able to do it was in a pp someone said it was only safe for the first 1 to 2 months?

mmmmmmmm

[Gale Force]

I just looked back at the posts and someone mentioned four months. If it was not refrigerated for that first day, I would definitely NOT eat it. Otherwise, I would still consider it, but I eat some crazy stuff here.

[asoulunbound]

woah

I'm a pretty opened minded person... but honestly... wow.
What good does easting your placenta do?
I applaud you guys, but I don't know if I could eat a raw placenta...
Just my opinion.
Of course, I've always been a picky eater.
I guess maybe sometime I'd try the smootie.
But my man would have a cow.
I'm still trying to get him comfortable with cosleeping past a few months old!
Baby steps, you see.