Eating your Placenta to prevent PPD... - Page 4

[mamamoo]

Originally Posted by myorganicbabies

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. :

I wish people would educate themselves on these subjects before making such mean comments!! We eat raw food also, lots of raw veggies, ever heard of sushi? It is ok to eat your placenta, and actual good for you...it's got to be better than swallowing chemicals every day just to feel the urge to hold your babie(which is what I had to do with my third!!).

I also agree on the lack of resources, most moms that suffer from ppd don't have the means to equip themselves with lots of frozen dinners, or pp doulas, or time to themselves...this is where our community is failing families.

[Nanners]

This has got to be some kind of joke! I could'nt agree more with taking alternative and natural routes to wellness but at the same time I see no reason to forego the benifits of modern research, knowledge and education. I believe that there is much to be gained from the lore of for instance ancient Asian medicine but we know a lot more about things these days and I see no more to be gained from us running around gobbling up our own afterbirth than I see in the practice of blood letting to remove "bad biles" from the body. It may be true that some otherwise vegetarian animals do this (although my extensive experience with domestic livestock has never revealed such a thing to me) I can't very well see how this relates to us since I have never encountered a predator roaming the halls of the birth centers. If it is irin you are worried about then why not go to your local health food store and pick up a bottle of Nature's Plus high potency chewables? I wonder if you all are aware of the practice of wild rabbits eating their own excrement to hide themselves from predators and to recycle nutrients? I am not being intentionally inflamatory here but I mean REALLY people! Think it over!

[Marlet]

I have noticed something on this thread. Those that are against it keep repeating phrases similar to "do your research". Are any of you who are so against this doing YOUR research or are you just commenting based off your own reservations with something that occurs naturally within many species? Get over your gripes and do your own research before telling others to do the same.

Off my soapbox now.

[UnschooledMama]

I ate (some of) my placenta raw after my son was born 20 months ago. My midwife told us about how it might help prevent ppd, and my DH blended some up with juice since it seemed best to eat it raw. It wasn't the tastiest thing, but in retrospect I wish I'd downed more of it! It seems like many other animals eat it, and there must be some reason. I didn't exactly escape the depression, but who knows--maybe it would have been worse if I hadn't eaten it.

[mamamoo]

Originally Posted by OtherMother'n'Madre

I have noticed something on this thread. Those that are against it keep repeating phrases similar to "do your research". Are any of you who are so against this doing YOUR research or are you just commenting based off your own reservations with something that occurs naturally within many species? Get over your gripes and do your own research before telling others to do the same.

Off my soapbox now.

Exactly!! And I hope you weren't saying this to me because I am a supporter!! I did use my placenta to prevent/minimize PPD!!
Debi

[Marlet]

Originally Posted by mamamoo

Exactly!! And I hope you weren't saying this to me because I am a supporter!! I did use my placenta to prevent/minimize PPD!!
Debi

Nope, not you! I was only menaing that towards those who are so disgusted with the very IDEA of it all. When I first was pregnant and planning a UC I didn't want to think about that....I had heard it could stop hemorraging. I never once expressed disgust over it though! I asked some questions and did some RESEARCH before forming an opinion! I don't want to come across as pretentious or anything but an opinion based on no research is not a worthy opinion, IMO. (:LOL at the number of "opinion"'s in there). I can't see a better way to help ward something off than by using my own body to do it! Bodies self heal all the time! Why would using your placenta not count towards that!?

Maybe I'm just grouchy today.........no, no I'm not...just irritated at the lack of respect for another person's decision to do what they feel is best for themselves. I say if you got the guts to do it and the courage to consider placenta eating as a preventative measure for any potential problems head on GO YOU!!!!

[mamamoo]

Cool...it is just so sad to me that women are suffering so much from ppd, and this is such an awsome "cure". I had a few down days, but never like what I experienced before, and I had it with all three kids, and it was progressively worse. I will forever be grateful to the woman that dried my placenta for me, I would hate to think of how it would have been without it.

[Marlet]

Exactly! It helped! I don't see the point in expressing disgust over something that 1. has worked for some and 2. is something you have no experience with since you wouldn't consider it, yk? I'd eat something I grew over something concocted out of not so great things anyday, but thats just me.

I'm going to stop now, starting to feel a little too mean! :LOL

[mamamoo]

[majazama]

Ummmmmmm, this thread is quite dear to my heart, so please don't make it a nasty-fest so the mods have to delete it. It has come back up "from the ashes" more than once, and I think it's very good to spread this information around, especially for women who suffer post-pardem depression. Placentas are our own medicines, if we will trust them.

To the people who post about placenta-eating in a negative way, please INFORM yourself before spouting off on this wonderful, powerful topic. Read some of the links provided.

Thank-you
~Jaz

[Marlet]

Originally Posted by majazama

Ummmmmmm, this thread is quite dear to my heart, so please don't make it a nasty-fest so the mods have to delete it. It has come back up "from the ashes" more than once, and I think it's very good to spread this information around, especially for women who suffer post-pardem depression. Placentas are our own medicines, if we will trust them.

To the people who post about placenta-eating in a negative way, please INFORM yourself before spouting off on this wonderful, powerful topic. Read some of the links provided.

Thank-you
~Jaz

That's why I stopped myself. Didn't want to be mean and get this shut down.

[MamaFern]

i bled quite heavily after my son was born, so i plan to eat some raw placenta right after i birth it to help with that.. im not sure if ill eat more after..dried, or not.. but im definitly okay with idea..!

as for folks saying that only carnivores eat their placentas, thats totally unfounded.. i know for a fact that sheep, cows goats eat their placentas (and probably most other grass eating creatures..)

[mamamoo]

Just wanted to say i wasn't trying to make it a nasty fest either, this thread (or one like it)is what made me even think of doing this, and I think it very well could have saved my life. It just hurt's when people are being so cruel, it's like someone going on the breastfeeding forum and saying, eww...breastfeeding is gross, and we have such better technology now, so take the pills....I know it's not *exactly* like that, but this is how it feels to me.

[Niamh]

I remember awhile back in a different forum (TAO maybe?) there was a thread asking what do you do know that you always said "Those hippies will never get me to...."

The normal answers of breastfeeding, homebirth, waterbirth, un-attended birth, slinging, co-sleeping, EC, organic foods, and homeschooling were given. Then a poster said "eating my placenta" and I spewed my drink all over my computer screen. I thought "What the h*ll? People actually do that? Well, animals do that, I guess, but gross!"

Then today I read this thread and within the space of 30 minutes (I raced through those links!), I am committed to drying and encapsulating my placenta.

Damn you, MDC! Look what you've done to me! :LOL

[AsYouWish]

Open to the idea

So DH and I were cooking dinner tonight. And I chose that moment (I warned him he might be grossed out at first :LOL ) to tell him about this thread and how it made me think that someday when we have a baby -- hopefully at home -- I will eat some of the placenta afterward to ward off the PPD that I fear. (I already struggle with depression...have since I was a kid.) I had heard of some women in other or past cultures doing so, but never thought I would see a discussion thread about it actually going on in the US in 2005! I'm totally open to the idea. I try to heal myself with natural/whole foods, with exercise, with fresh air. That there would be health benefits to eating the placenta just seems to follow a certain logic, IMO. Anyway, it can't hurt. My own "meat" MUST be healthier to me than a fish's or cow's or chicken's, kwim?

DH was absolutely supportive of the concept, btw! He's so awesome!

[edamommy]

Oy! To each his/her own. I'm better off taking an rx for ppd!!!

[majazama]

Originally Posted by Niamh

.....within the space of 30 minutes (I raced through those links!), I am committed to drying and encapsulating my placenta.

Damn you, MDC! Look what you've done to me! :LOL

hehe. We will overthrow the mainstream ...........mwhahahaha

And to mamamoo and OtherMother'n'Madre, I didn't want you to think that this was directed at you... I could see by your posts that you were not making it bad, I was just warning those that were lurking, thinking this would be a good place to pick a fight.

I wanna keep it posative, it's not an opinion poll, either.

:

[eorr]

I've read a few threads on this topic, and felt that I should reply to one by now!

The first time I read about lotus birth and eating the placenta, I'll admit I was grossed out. But, much like pps have said (Niamh - me too!!) - once I started educating myself about it, I started considering it for myself!! I even told my dh, and his initial reaction was negative, but when I described my reasons he was definitely in support.

The thing is, IMHO it's important to keep an open mind, and to realize that the most important thing is to trust ourselves and our bodies. Do what feels right to you and you'll be doing well. Try not to pass judgement on others, based on what feels right to you. You do not know what will be right for them. Does it really hurt you for someone to do this or not, even if you will/won't? Oh, I am SOOOO deep. :LOL

Any one know of someone around LA who prepares it for you?

[Niamh]

Originally Posted by myorganicbabies

I understand that many animals do this after they give birth, but they also eat raw and wild food.

This statement has been bugging me all night, so I had to address it.

Are we as a...well, I don't know where the poster is from, so I can't say 'country'...So, are we as a 'people' really so far removed from what we really are that we don't realize WE eat raw and wild food?

The way the poster said this equated eating 'raw and wild food' with 'placenta'.

'Raw and wild food' is lettuce, peppers, squash, apples, pineapple,and on and on. It's meat and veggies and fruit and grains. IT"S WHAT WE INGEST TO SURVIVE! Unless you eat a diet completely made up of chemically made foods (which, come to think of it, may not be that hard) then YOU eat raw and wild food.

Eating the placenta is what every mammal does after birth. It's not something any of these women plan on doing on a regular basis, it's what they plan on doing as part of the natural order of things.

-Niamh
proud eater of 'raw and wild' foods

[mamamoo]

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