Eating your Placenta to prevent PPD... - Page 20

[LilMomma83]

Interesting thread!

We are going to try and sneak mine out of the hospital..ideas!? IF we can I'll dry it and put it in capsules to take after the birth. I am already anemic this pregnancy, and was anemic after birth last time so hopefully it might help with that...and I am still on meds from PPD with the first birth, so hopefully it will keep things from getting any worse.

[BlessedMommy2006]

Just thought that I'd throw my experience in here FWIW. I had PPD with #1. When I was pregnant I decided to eat the placenta. I was too lazy to make it into capsules, so we just blended it into smoothies. My DH made my first smoothie for me right after birth and then we put the other placenta pieces into the freezer and made 1 smoothie per day for the first week postpartum. We used juice concentrate, frozen fruit, etc. I couldn't really taste the placenta. They just tasted like yummy smoothies!

There was an absolutely HUGE difference in how I felt after this birth, compared to my first birth. I had more energy, was more cheerful and emotionally stable, and felt stronger.

We had a homebirth, so after the birth, the MW and my husband prepared the placenta for freezing together by washing it, cutting it up, and putting it into bags. Such a simple process and so beneficial!

I'm now 2 months PP and so far, do not have PPD and am adjusting to two kids more easily than I ever adjusted to one. If there every is a baby #3, I will eat the placenta without a second thought. It was wonderful!

[Limabean1975]

BlessedMommy, are you saying you finished the whole thing in one week? I ask because I see alot of questions about how long to ingest it over - with the capsules some people seem to stretch it out for months, but it makes mroe sense to me, in terms of what's "natural" to consume it all in a short period (days) after the birth.

[BlessedMommy2006]

Yep, I finished the whole thing by 7 days postpartum. We cut the placenta into 8 equal pieces and had 1 smoothie immediately after birth and then made smoothies for the other 7 days with the other 7 pieces. I would make a large blenderful of it in the morning and consume it throughout the day

[Limabean1975]

So those chunks were not too big for your blender? I was imagining getting DH to cut it all into little inch chunks, and I must say 8 pieces sounds much more of a manageable project!

[BlessedMommy2006]

No, they weren't too big for our blender. And we have a crummy, cheap blender, too, LOL.

They cut the placenta like a pie, basically.

[Maggirayne]

What size of capsules did you all use? And how many capsules did you get?

[unlegal]

I used 00s, and about 130ish, I believe.

[Limabean1975]

Cross-posting my quick update from the Placenta Smoothies thread:

Quick update - my baby was born Sunday morning. I've been having placenta smoothies since then, mainly berry ones with berries, juice, other fruit like banana & orange. DH put a ton of vanilla in the first batch but it proved to be unecessary. Could not taste a thing and he's been putting alot of placenta in each blenderful.- The first batch had a hamburger patty (well, small, mcdonald's sized) size chunk plus a bunch of blood...did not taste ANYTHIGN in that vanilla berry smoothie. It's all finished now except some chunks he could not separate from the membrance. Considering trying to blend that, not sure how the membrane would fare in the blender.

I had it all so fast because I figured that's closest to nature - spreading it over a few months is not what would happen in nature.

And yeah... I feel GREAT. Everything is great. Physically, emotionally - Millions of times better than my first post partum experience. There are many other factors that could be contributing to that, but it certainly could be because of the placenta!

[Snuzzmom]

That's awesome, lima! So good to know. And congratulations on Baby Girl.

I am still planning on encapsulation. One of my friends offered to be on Placenta Duty and bring the placenta from the hospital to our house, where she'll meet the woman who is doing the encapsulating.

YAY!! I'm excited to try this!

[Limabean1975]

Originally Posted by Snuzzmom

That's awesome, lima! So good to know. And congratulations on Baby Girl.

I am still planning on encapsulation. One of my friends offered to be on Placenta Duty and bring the placenta from the hospital to our house, where she'll meet the woman who is doing the encapsulating.

YAY!! I'm excited to try this!

[Anassa54]

We never got to eat our placenta. I probably needed it though; I did get postpartum depression. It was taken away and donated to some bank. But at least if our baby gets lieukemia or something the cord blood or whatever was in it will probably be there for him. When I asked my aunt if she ate the placentas from when she had her kids she asked me in a shrieking but amused voice if I was nuts, and she said that they took away hers to test them and find out what she ate when she was pregnant. She said they knew right away that she had eaten a lot of popsicles when she was pregnant with her son.

[JennTheMomma]

Next time around we're having mine put into capsules. In other countries women eat theirs for strength and such, most mammals eat theirs aswell. When my dog had her pups she ate all of them and that gave her strength and helped her with breastfeeding.

[Channelle]

If I give birth in a hospital, will they let me keep the placenta and take it home?

[unlegal]

Originally Posted by Channelle

If I give birth in a hospital, will they let me keep the placenta and take it home?

You would have to get in contact with the hospital you're planning on giving birth at, and find out their policy. Sometimes you need to fill out paperwork. Also, I would make your plans well known when you're there in labor.

[ShineliketheSon]

Originally Posted by Channelle

If I give birth in a hospital, will they let me keep the placenta and take it home?

My MW and the nurses just had to know so they didn't throw it. I did placenta caps and got 40 more than normal! BIG placenta! I'm 2 mo PP and they are almost gone. I take 2 a day now...I'm guessing they helped. I have way more happy times than I did with DD1 but I still have the yucky feelings and just today thought maybe it's PPD and not just normal baby blues...took the quiz and yup, moderate. So did it help? dunno, PPD might have been much worse and much sooner without them.

[BirthTraumaHealing]

I'm a B&PP Doula, CBE & EFT Instr. new to this forum. Thanks everyone all the way back to the beginning of this topic for your wise words of advice, curiousity, teaching, & support. I have a client who showed many risk factors for PPD prenatally, so I felt the need to be proactive about her postpartum care guidelines. I asked Spirit what was needed, and lots of Placenta info has come to me in a short time of researching, including this forum...HI! :-)

Baby was born last week & I've just 'encapsulated' for the first time, plus made "Mother Essence"; a base for Tincture they both can take for the rest of their lives in times of trauma or transition. My first effort resulted in 102 '00' capsules, 1qt of "Mother Essence" and - I'm not making this up - one small heart-shaped piece of placenta that would not reduce even though I processed the last bits several times. I have done a VERY good thing.

I offer my gratitude for your guidance in aquiring these new skills that will empower many women; offering a truly natural, safe, and powerfully effective alternative to dangerous pharmaceuticals is enormously valuable. Your contributions will be appreciated by each woman who gives herself this gift. My website can be viewed at BirthTraumaHealing.com which will take you to ChildBirthBliss.com

[Snuzzmom]

Baby arrived on July 30 and I'm on day 3 of the capsules!! So far, so good... My mill supply as already better than with DS prior to starting them, so I won't really be able to tell if the capsules are helping there or not, and DD is sleeping very well (I have to wake her to eat), but I haven't dissolved into a teary mess yet and my energy level is pretty good. I'll keep y'all posted on how it's going.

[thepoet]

Three days PP for me right now. Every day I've had two placenta smoothies made with a quarter size piece of placenta, frozen strawberries, keifer, frozen blueberries, and half & half (totally decadent I know).

I have not cried once, not lost my temper, energy levels are fantastic. The PP bleeding is totally minimal, I'm wearing normal cloth pads for two days now, not even overnight ones.

I feel pretty great.

Its especially nice to have your smoothie served in a wine glass.

[Snuzzmom]

Just checking in.

Things are still going well with this, but to be fair and unbiased, DD is so much easier than DS that there is no way I can REALLY compare the two experiences. She has milk, she eats, she sleeps, she can be awake without being fussy, she has great night sleep... etc. So even without the capsules I'd already be so, so much better off than I was the first time around.

However, I think it is pretty clear that I do NOT have PPD this time around, and I think some of that is due to the capsules. I have had some tears at stressful moments, but nothing I couldn't recover from, and I don't feel that sick sense of doom/ hopelessness/ seeing life through a veil that I know all too well from have depression and PPD.

So, yeah. I'd recommend taking the capsules (or ingesting the placenta any other way) if you're thinking about it. It can't hurt you, and it may help.