Eating your Placenta to prevent PPD... - Page 3

[vespersongs]

Ask her assistant

I just spoke with my midwife (judy hagan, here in NJ--my 2nd HB with her coming in Oct) and she works with another lay midwife who assists her. This woman has exp. in preparing the placenta and is going to help me with it.

My plan is to dry 1/2, grind to powder and put it in veggie caps, then slice 1/2 into thin strips and freeze them...i'll do the smoothie thing...seems the easiest...

Never thought I'd want to do this, but for the terrible problems i had nursing the first time (which was corrected with domperidone, now not available as a milk-increaser in the US, so I'd have to go to canada!), PCOS and slight touch of PPD. Anything that will help me with that...

[Mom2baldie]

I posted in this thread back in Sept. 04 and am happy to see that it has been bumped again. When my DD was born in late Sept. I did end up eating my placenta and I don't regret it in the least.

I don't know if that was the only reason why I didn't suffer from PPD or not, but I do think it helped tremendously and will do it again if I have another child.

I had planned to dry and encapsulate it, but ended up deciding that that method would be too much work. I tried it in a smoothie before I realized that, for me, eating it raw would be the fastest and easiest.

[mama_Agnieszka]

what it's been 6 months

Does anyone know if it would be okay to dry and encapsulate the placenta if it's been frozen for 6 months? I've been undecided - was going to bury it in the yard and plant a tree for my baby but have had terrible ppd - still recovering - and would like to try the placenta.... except it's been a while. would it still be okay???

A.

[cwaddick]

Food Safety Guidelines -- storage of meats

http://www.fsis.usda.gov/Fact_Sheets...fely/index.asp

This page suggests that uncooked raw meat will store safely in the refrigerator for 1-3 days, and in the freezer for 1-2 months.

-- Caitlin

[cwaddick]

Placental Capsules - my experience

* Preparation: My local midwife made capsules for me. She was a different one that the one I hired for my birth. She only accepts freshly born placentas within 24 hours. She dries them in a food dehydrator, then puts them in capsules. I received 128 capsules. The fee was $75, which I thought was steep, particularly since I wasn't convinced at the time that I needed them or would use them. DH drove the placenta to her house on Tuesday after the birth; I received the capsules in the mail on Saturday.

* Use 1: I started taking the capsules immediately to help with general post-partum recovery, particularly fatigue. The dose is 1 per meal; 3 per day total.

* Use 2: I stopped taking them the next day when I had breast engorgement because I was concerned that they were promoting milk supply, and I have had problems after each of my births with milk oversupply and severe, painful breast engorgement (and subsequent gagging, plugged milk ducts, and mastitis). However, if milk undersupply is your problem, taking placental capsules is *the best* remedy.

* Use 3: I started taking them again for post-partum depression. They are helping. They have protein, are easily digestible, are madeof me and for me and perfect for my body, and contain a variety of vitamins (such as B complex vitamins) and other things great for curing depression.

Cheers,
Caitlin .... whose beautiful baby boy is now waking up!

[majazama]

way to go, cwaddick! I'm glad that it's working for you. I'm also happy to see this placenta-eating thing catch on.

[runes]

Cwaddick...thank you for posting you experience with this. I am going to try to find someone in my area that performs the placenta drying service.

If I can find someone like that, then I am planning to eat a small piece of placenta raw in a smoothie right after birth, then sending the placenta out for drying and encapsulating. Thanks to all of the mamas who have posted about their thoughts, research and experience regarding consuming placenta. When I first heard about it, my first reaction was ewww, but in reading more and looking into it it really resonates with me.

[mamamoo]

Hi, Just wanteds to chime in again. I had my placenta made into capsules, and I think the woman who did it for me charges very little, there is a lot of work involved, cutting, drying, crushing, then putting into capsules, not to mention working with blood products in the first place. She charges $50, and I gladly would have paid more than that(she actually did mine free, I was one of the first couple she did) for the ppd relief I got!

[aja-belly]

i dried mine in the dehydrator then ground it in the coffee grinder. i put it in capsules then took a few a day for the first 2 weeks pp, then i noticed it was all moldy!! i was so sad. i still have the rest in a bag (very gross looking) because i wanna plant it under a rose bush in our backyard. i can't just throw it out.

[Full Heart]

Giving this thread a bump to say If it wasn't for this thread I wouldn't have eaten my placenta. I gave birth 4 days ago and had my placenta raw in a a v-8 smoothie till yesterday am. I have been suffering severe ppd since the birth of my last baby and these last 4 days I have felt better than I have in 18 mos. It immediatly energized me, stopped my night sweats and I have actually been able to sleep. SOmething that previously escaped me. Dh was shocked to find me snoring! My bleeding is minimal and the baby has barely any jaundice. My milk came in less than 48 hour after the birth, but I haven't become engorged and my nipples are barely sore. This is #6 for me and this has been my easiest recovery. I don't know how long the effects of the placenta will last but right now I am so enjoying this!

Michelle

[mystic~mama]

Full Heart,

wow, that is amazing! you sold me on eating my placenta, if I give brith again

[veggiekicks]

Congrats, Full Heart!

I am still taking the placenta caps that my midwife prepared for me. They've helped stabilze my emotions and I feel great! As a student midwife, I've seen a bit of placenta eaten raw help to stop a post partum hemorrhage. When I have a midwifery practice, I plan to recommend all of my clients hang on to their placentas--just in case.

Nature sure has a way of providing for us!

[amydawnsmommy]

UGH!!!! The Chinese may be able to do it but I doubt that most North American women could. UGH!!! Just the thought of it is very much like cannabalism. UGH!!!

Having had a very deep dark postpartum depression *and* having survived it despite much pain, grief and even suicidal thoughts, I now know what would have helped me to cope better and here is my advice:

*Get a postpartum doula or a live-in helper for the first four to six weeks so that Mommy and Baby can rest and the helper can keep you fed and keep the housework up relieving you of that extra work.

*Take a good multivitamin because I've read that even deficiencies of magnesium can lead to ppd!

*Ask your midwife or doctor about taking iron supplements as well. In pregnancy a women's iron needs double and nursing *does* take a lot out of you.

*Make sure you take your omega 3 oils as well as they are known to fight depression. They are known as essential fatty acids because our bodies NEED them to work properly!

*Eat as healthily as possible. This is where having a helper would really benefit you as they could make wholesome meals for you and the family. If that is just not an option, freeze as many meals as you can in advance and ask relatives and those who drop in to bring a meal when they come.

*Get your sleep! Sleep is SUCH an important thing during the first few weeks when you are adjusting to life with a new baby and recovering from the pregnancy and birth.

*Talk to other moms about what it's like having a new baby and get support from them and family if you can.

*Look into joining a new moms group or a postpartum depression support group in your area to talk about the challenges of parenting and how you're coping.

*Make sure you get breaks!!! VERY important!! DON'T expect to do it all! You don't have to be Wonder Woman!!!
Allow the housework to slide, you've got a new baby!

*Keep lots of little stashes of healthy food (water bottles, granola bars, dried fruit, nuts, etc.) around the house so when you sit down to nurse your little one you can refuel as well.

*SLEEP when the baby sleeps!!! Everyone told me this when Hope was a baby and I am just this year able to allow myself to sleep regularly when she sleeps because I know how much I need it! Sleep deprivation was a big problem for me and added to everything.

*Talk to your doctor about how you're feeling and check in with him/her if you're not feeling quite right. Better to check in earlier rather than later. And he/she may be able to refer you to a good counsellor. My doctor was able to do this and my counsellor is so amazing and really believes in me, he has helped me so much! He was able to keep me going when I was so low I wanted to give up even though I really didn't want to give up.

*Avoid caffeine, white sugar and white bread and junk food like the plague! Having a new baby is exhausting, the last thing you need is junk food with no nutrition in it.

*Take a greens supplement too as it helps you get your fruits and vegetables in and is very quick to put together.

The keys are getting enough sleep, good nutrition, and support!

Jen

[MAMom]

Originally Posted by amydawnsmommy

UGH!!!! The Chinese may be able to do it but I doubt that most North American women could. UGH!!! Just the thought of it is very much like cannabalism. UGH!!!

My initial recation to eating placenta was also that it was gross...until I started researching it, reading about it and learning all of the benefits. I think it is a little hard to stomach (no pun intended) thinking about doing something that seems so foreign, but the more I learn about it, the more I think it is what was intended for the placenta.

This is an interesting article on Placentophagy (and as it mentions, "all species of mammal eat their placentae" - yup, I can remember seeing my cat give birth when I was a child & her eating the "afterbirth")!

Another good link....What Can I Do With This Placenta? ......placenta prints, placenta recipes, Traditional Chinese Medicine placenta preparation (what I am leaning towards).

[Heffernhyphen]

My neighbor cut hers up and used it to feed some trees they were planting in honor of their new baby. I don't know how it does for humans, but the trees look very happy.

[vespersongs]

These are not really options!!!

I tried, tried to keep an open mind about the recent post of suggestions of doing _everything but_ consuming the placenta (which, remember, does not need to be raw but can be taken in gelcaps!), but here is why some of those things are not options for me...not making excuses, just stating the facts:

*Live-in helper or hiring a pp doula? you've got to be kidding...no offense, but those are luxuries that are beyond my wildest dreams. I am scraping my pennies together to pay for my home birth (worth every penny, too)...I just almost laughed out loud. It was not long ago that I was on WIC. Not exactly the income bracket that hires live-in help or pp doulas. Again, no offense...nice if you can do it...

*My family lives far away and both mine and dh's families are still young and still very much, by necessity, attached to their own job schedules...dh has 2 weeks basically unpaid that he's taking, and my mom will be here for 2 days, then his mom for 2 weeks, which is nice, but also tiring...

*The amount of supplementation you are suggesting is also something many cannot afford; i take rainbow light prenatals but that is even a luxury item.

*Freezing food in advance--OK, i managed to freeze 1 baked ziti and 1 zucchini bread. I have a 2.5 year old and am a WAHM. We're lucky it's not cereal _every_ night...let alone making _extra_ meals to freeze!

*As if the housework were even a consideration...or being wonder woman...with the level of exhaustion, depression and nursing problems I had to tackle, it was about survival...I could have cared less about housework!

*I've battled severe insomnia since I was a teenager..."sleep when the baby sleeps" is like salt in a wound when I hear it. (I do take homeopathic coffea and that helps, but not completely...i have been working on this with my homeopath for 2 years now!)

*Ohmigosh I _DESPISE_ "new moms' groups". I have been to a few of those, support groups and also "Mommy and Me" classes (thanks to my mom's generosity) and I am like a cat scratching the walls begging to get out...they are _not_ for everyone...

*When you have a hormonal imbalance as severe as we women do with PCOS, you can eat as healthily as you want, take all the supplements you can, drink a gallon of water at each nursing..._nothing_ will take you over the hump except drastic measures. And the measures were _drastic_. Thankfully, and I am so thankful, I was able to nurse ds for 15 months until we mutually weaned. But at any time, had I not had the healthcare team I had (and had my case not been so interesting to them!), I could have given up and been entirely within my rights to do so.

*I do have to say you were _absolutely RIGHT_ about the sugar thing. Women with PCOS should avoid sugar like poison, since much of PCOS has to do with insulin resistance...and insulin overload has much to do with other hormonal imbalances...

Again, I am not trying to be mean here, but I just have to ask...
Why not just consume the freaking thing? It's _free_, my midwife's assistant does it so I don't have to, and it's common in many societies to do it and from all accounts it works. Once I went to a conference about placental remedies and heard this German midwife's accounts, I was sold. If it's the repulsion I have to deal with, I'll deal with it. Heck, our society also tells us that our vaginas are not adequate to let our babies out, but we fight against that, right?! So this is something that I personally _was_ grossed out by, but when I heard the effects it has, I knew that I had to do it no matter how i or anybody (including dh, who just "doesn't want to know about it") feels to the contrary.

I guess the bottom line is that for someone like me who has a particular set of hormonal risk factors for PPD and BF problems, the usual advice just doesn't cut it...and you just do whatcha gotta do. I'll do anything not to go through what I did last time.

Maybe I'm just particularly sensitive tonight because I feel like baby's coming any _minute_ and I am hoping and praying for a good PP...

Peace...I really do mean it...I'm just a little wound up!

[mamamoo]

I totally agree with you!! Why try to come up with everything under the sun to treat something that is obviously helped so much by this easy, free remedy? Because society says it's gross? I am actually sadened that people here (at MDC) meet this idea with such revulsion. I thought it was weird at first, but totally, all mamals eat their placentas. There is a biological reason to do so. I had HORRIBLE ppd that was getting progressivly worse with each of my kids. It was so bad with my third that I REFUSED TO NURSE him when he needed it!!! My baby was hungry and I would not hold him, or feed him. My husband knew how dedicated I was to breastfeeding, and held my baby to my breast while I laid there like a log, hating every second of it. I would eat anything!!!!! if I knew it would keep me from feeling that way again. I took my placenta in capsules after my fourth baby, and I felt amazing!!! It was like night and day.
Just my two cents.
Debi

[mamamoo]

I agree...the smell was not too good, but it just smelled like blood to me. I held my breathe while I swallowed my pills. Debi

[eroslovesagape]

My last placenta was buried in the woods. This time, I'm eating it. I'm an animal, a human mammal, and have you ever heard of cats, apes or cows having ppd? They birth, eat the placenta. I had ppd bad enough w/my 2 previous babes that I am willing to do this easily to avoid the misery ppd caused me, babe and family. I'd rather gag this down than try drugs.

Cats, apes and cows are also naturally raw foodists, as am I for the most part. I'm planning on eating some raw immediately post birth, and slicing & dehydrating in my dehydrator (108 degrees or lower keeps the enzymes alive = naturally aides in digestion; heat changes things! For example, raw egg yolk is full of lecithin & other healthful elements, but cooking hydrogenates it & it becomes a contributor to heart disease!). I'm not planning on seasoning it or anything, except maybe w/some Bragg's or raw Shoyu sauce. I'm assuming since it's got blood in it, it'll be salty already.

I'm kind of a kook when it comes to eating healthful/medicinal things; for pregnancy nausea I simply minced fresh ginger & swallowed entire teaspoonfuls w/water or yogurt. I don't care how I get it in my body if I know it will help me. Mind over matter.

Interestingly, my midwife just the other day asked if I'd thought about eating my placenta. She described a Chinese medicine method: steam the placenta over vinegar (that smell would probably make me puke!), slice thinly, dehydrate in oven on low. I'll keep it raw & dehydrate it. My DH is fascinated by the prospect and says he wants to eat some. I think we'll be scrapping over it!

Baby #3 (and first girl) is due in 4 weeks and I'll definitely let on how this placenta-eating works or not!

Also, amydawnsmommy posted some good suggestions on preventing PPD, but one MAJOR thing was missing IMO: outdoor (if possible) exercise! My gawd, of all the things researched on depression and PPD, the benefits of exercise rank up there with the best pharmaceutical drugs, minus the side effects. This doesn't mean jogging, it means getting out of the house into air, sky, plants and moving the body, just walking for 30 minutes. So often we thing exercise is some evil spandex-wearing demon that demands we sweat in front of some stupid video or gym class. Just walk! It does wonders. Eating as many raw, fresh foods possible also seriously increases physical energy and, for lack of a better term, spiritual energy.

Vespersongs, you make some good points. We don't all have the resources for optimal living, that's for sure! But you did sound a wee bit grumpy and I hope you're feeling better! Being close to due date and all...wishing you good energy! I don't know if it was planetary or this particular full moon, but for the last entire week our entire household has been nastily grumpy! And then like sunshine breaking through an overcast sky, family energy changed to normal happy-dappy yesterday morning. ??? Weird.

Blessings, all!

[myorganicbabies]

What a really disturbing thing to read.

This topic is really alarming. I would think twice before indulging in cannabalism. At least that what this sounds like to me. I understand that many animals do this after they give birth, but they also eat raw and wild food. Furthermore.....just eating it is a disturbing thought.
After all I've read about the american diet and eating meat and cattle....i hear this...a very strange subject. I would think REALLY CAREFUL before taking something like this seriously. Personally I would never do it. :