Eating your Placenta to prevent PPD... - Page 9

[Irish_Blue]

Originally Posted by 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.

Yea I think I'm past the safe date, which totally stinks.

[swell_mel]

: :
Okay so I have only vaguely heard of this. Can anyone point me to an article or something laying out the benefits to consuming your placenta and the "ingredients" in the placenta that are beneficial. This is very fascinating to me although I am 110% sure that my husband would not be on the same page as me so any info would be appreciated. Thanks ladies! :

[krismarie]

[QUOTE=sweetangelbrynlie]How does this help PPD? Is there hormones in the placenta that helps?

yes! as soon as you birth the placenta you loose the huge amount of hormones that you had while growing the baby and your body starts to pump out milk producing hormones instead. you can wean yourself off of the hormones by eating some placenta instead of the instant loss of them...

i'm sure someone can explain this a lot better than i just did...

[Anguschick1]

Wow! I don't know how I missed this thread the first or second time around...I ate 2 thumb-sized pieces of the placenta after ds2's homebirth. Ds1's birth was messed up in many ways and while I was never diagnosed, I'm pretty sure that I had some ppd.

Here are some links....

Placenta Recipes
http://www.twilightheadquarters.com/placenta.html

More Recipes
http://www.mothers35plus.co.uk/plac_rec2.htm#bolognaise

Some articles
http://cogprints.org/757/00/gustibus.htm
http://www.answers.com/topic/placentophagy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placentophagy
http://thegreenman.net.au/mt/archives/001043.html

As far as all the extreme negativity on this thread...sadly that always happens when placentophagy comes up. Some believe that we eat our placentas "to be different" some because we're cannibals, some because we just haven't heard of the "marvels of modern medicine." : It's hard not to engage the ignorance, but I try not to.

My best friend made a tincture w/ds2's placenta, but I don't think she did it correctly, and it seems disrespectful to just dump it out, so I have to figure out what to do w/that. The solid part of the placenta is in our freezer, but I'm not sure that it's any good anymore as 1) it's been a year 2) it sat at room temperature for a couple of days to make the tincture 3) the "essence" has been removed during the tincture making...we'll probably keep it until we can plant it in honor of ds2.

Next time I want to find someone to encapsulate it for me. Dh refuses and I don't think w/two little ones and a newborn that I'll have the headspace to do it.

Oh - fyi - the hospital that ds1 was born at considered the placenta a "biohazard" and you literally had to steal it if you wanted to take it home. Although if you told them you wanted to plant it, you might not get quite the same reaction as if you told them you wanted to knaw on it! (Sorry - the vision of knawing on my placenta makes me laugh )

If you don't have an unmedicated birth, do you think a placenta is still safe to consume? I've always wondered that.

[the_lissa]

I just had some placenta smoothies this wekk, and I feel great.

[asoulunbound]

I wasn't trying to be negative... I am just like... wow, definitely a new one on me. Obviously, I have a lot to learn. It's really quite fascinating...
But how accepted is this in even the midwifery, etc, circle? I mean I've not really heard of this until now.
I'm really enjoying learning this stuff, ladies and gents.

[runes]

Originally Posted by asoulunbound

I wasn't trying to be negative... I am just like... wow, definitely a new one on me. Obviously, I have a lot to learn. It's really quite fascinating...
But how accepted is this in even the midwifery, etc, circle? I mean I've not really heard of this until now.
I'm really enjoying learning this stuff, ladies and gents.

my midwife was supportive, she has had clients do this before and she was overall neutral about the whole thing. i got the feeling that this was something that she wouldn't do personally, but that she has seen mamas benefit from eating their placentas.

i have friends and family who to this day wonder out loud how i didn't get ppd after our horribly interventive homebirth transport, then discovering i had a vesicovaginal fistula so i was totally and uncontrollably incontinent to urine and had to have a catheter and then surgery to repair it at 3.5 months postpartum. my mil literally gagged when i told her about my placenta smoothies, but after her visceral reaction she thought about it and she realized that it probably helped so much, and she was glad that i had the resources to do this. she has experience in this area...her daughter was hospitalized with ppd and psychosis.

i am so thankful and grateful that i didn't get ppd after our traumatic birth, and that through the complications and pain i was still able to bond so closely to my precious daughter. i had great support from the people around me so i'm sure that played a role...but whether those smoothies played a small or large role in my postpartum hormonal/emotional recovery...i am very sure that they helped tremendously.

[the_lissa]

My midwife thought it was neat and was very supportive. I'm her first client that has done it as far as she knows.

[Anguschick1]

When I asked one midwife about it she said, "You're kidding, right? Please tell me you're kidding." I spoke w/another midwife in the practice who was like, "Cool - whatever you think will work for you." The first was a younger midwestern-trained midwife & the second an older midwife who trained/practiced in California for a while before moving to Chicago.

I ended up using a homebirth doc practice (midwives were in a hospital) and the nurse saw me eat some & later commented on how little I was bleeding & how my uterus was almost bck to normal size (at 3 or 4 days pp).

I think the attendants' reactions are as diverse as practitioners who find giving perenial support essential/useful/interference.

[shell024]

Originally Posted by Anguschick1

If you don't have an unmedicated birth, do you think a placenta is still safe to consume? I've always wondered that.

Me too...

[shell024]

Here is a great site:
http://placentabenefits.info/index.asp

The placenta contains natural hormones which are extremely beneficial to a woman recovering from childbirth. Oxytocin helps the uterus contract, returning it to its pre-pregnancy size. Oxytocin also promotes lactation, augmenting the mother's milk supply. The placenta is rich in iron, which postpartum women need to replenish after childbirth. This is a particularly useful benefit to those on a vegetarian diet.

[roseq]

Apart from all the health benefits, did anyone ever feel like they were in some way retaining a piece of their baby? I don't know how to make that sound unweird. I mean, part of my PPD was feeling like my babies were no longer a part of me. I thought about that as a possible way to feel they were always with me. Do I sound crazy here? I didn't actually do it, I didn't know about it, but when reading these posts that idea really appealed to me in an almost spiritual way. I think if I ever give birth again, I will definately be looking up some recipies.

God help me if my IRL friends found out though!

[Tori Gollihugh]

Originally Posted by shell024

Me too...

I think that if the placenta will let the drug (whatever it may be) pass to the baby, then you have to consider that it would likely retain some of it, too. However, I have not researched this particular aspect of placentophagy... it just seems to make sense that if the placenta will pass it, then it will also keep some of it, ya know?

[TSamara]

Placenta-eating supporter here

When I gave birth to my son I had the nurses put my placenta in the freezer so I could eat it later. When I was ready, still in hospital because of having had a c section, the male nurse I had told me he couldn't find it. I said they told me they put it in the freezer. Day after day I asked for my placenta and the response was the same.

Finally, on the day I left hospital, they found it - they put it in the food freezer, and the male nurse told me he hadn't thought of looking in there for it and looked rather disgusted.

Unfortunately my PND had already started so by the time I took my placenta home, and got my parents to thaw, cut, and cook it - I was so sick that I couldn't eat it. I couln't eat anything.

Maybe if it weren't for that nurse's duh-ness and had found it in time, I may have been able to avoid my illness - who knows.

I say, if you want to eat your placenta - go for it. It is perfectly natural and healthy.

[BirthFree]

I wonder if when you dehydrate it it removes some of the medication or makes it benign.

I had mine dehydrated and encapsulate and have been taking 2 capsules of it since I got it back (day 4 I think). It has *really* helped my energy (b/c I feel so incredibly weak for weeks normally) and my emotions have remained relatively stable. Honestly, I don't think I would still be afloat without it. I still worry about suffering severe PPD again... so I am still trying hard to stay above, but the fact that I have some hormonal help with the capsules... what a relief.

Many hugs...

Originally Posted by Tori Gollihugh

I think that if the placenta will let the drug (whatever it may be) pass to the baby, then you have to consider that it would likely retain some of it, too. However, I have not researched this particular aspect of placentophagy... it just seems to make sense that if the placenta will pass it, then it will also keep some of it, ya know?

[mamaofthreecats]

well, i suppose if cats do it and such it must be ok.

i'm not for certain, but i think a friend of mine may have eaten hers. she gave birth in her house with no doctor or midwife. she's a great and brave girl!!!!

[mamaofthreecats]

speaking of placentas, i didn't keep mine and i wish i had. i was so excited about the baby i kind of brushed it off.

[Wugmama]

Ok, so had PPD after 1st birth (never officially diagnosed, but pretty sure). Had homebirth midmives for second birth, one of them in particular thought this was a great idea. She was even kind enough to take the placenta to her home and prepare it for me in little capsules. My babe is now 8 months old and I have done great. I am mostly taking a capsule now when I have PMS.


But the weirdest thing happened to me. About 2 weeks after my last period, I was feeling really stressed, so took a placenta medicine capsule, as I have been doing since I got them. The next day my period started back up! I bled for another 2 days! Has that happened to anyone else?

~Tracy

[milk_maker]

I made it through all nine pages! *pats self on back* I've been interested in eating the placenta since I found out I was pregnant.

Which would be more effective: immediate consumption or long term consumption?

Part of me is kind of leaning towards a more immediate consumption of the placenta just because that's how it occurs in nature. However, I had pretty bad PPD with DS and circumstances in my life at the moment are stressful (preparing to move halfway across the world, husband deployed, etc...) so I don't know if it would be better to do the whole capsules thing.

Agh, confuzzling!

[varaonaid]

Ya know, I've just gotta say how much I love this site! It makes me think about things that never would have even crossed my mind. What an interesting thread. I'm gonna read through the whole thing but you guys already have me interested in doing the capsule thing. I'm a total meatitarian (sorry, no offence I hope to vegi folks) but I don't think I could handle it any other way than capsules.

Now, how to ease DH into the idea of it...