Placental essence

[koru]

because of my history of anxiety/panic attacks, i decided to do something with my placenta to help regulate my hormones. this is what i did....

http://www.unhinderedliving.com/placentaessence.html

i've been taking in a few times a day since birth & i really think it's helping! (kittn's post about being teary made me ponder because i was extremely weepy after both my girls but not so much this time......?)

the rest of my placenta is in the freezer & i'm thinking about encapsulating it but i'm nervous about the smell of cooking placenta.

what have you done with your placentas?

[Jilian]

I plan on making placenta essence and then dehydrating and encapsuling my placenta. I've heard that the smell of a cooking placenta isn't *that* bad and you could always add lemon juice to counteract the smell. I'm worried that DH is gonna be grossed out by the smell.

[Lizzo]

At a birth 3 weeks ago, I cooked a placenta and it did not smell odd at all. I used olive oil, garlic and onion and let that sweat. Then I put in the chopped up placenta with salt and pepper. Then it kind of made this sauce, so I added sherry, thyme and flour. Everyone ate it and loved it. The texture was weird, but it's placenta!

I plan to make mine into a smoothie and then freeze it. We'll either use it all for me or plant it depending on my needs.

[Synchro246]

Placenta sushi.

I ate four nickle sized pieces right after the birth. It tasted good, like sashimi(sp?) maybe with a hint of beefyness. My friend says I describe it the same way she would steak tar tar. I noticed a bit of a tingle in my mouth. A little while later I had a V8 and placenta smoothie. It too was good. Mostly tasted just like V8 with a bit of texture. Not an offensive texture either.
I didn't bleed very much. Now is 4 days post birth and my bleeding has basicly stopped.
I still have the rest in the fridge double ziplocked in the meat drawer. I wanted to have another smoothie, but now it weirds me out that it's been a few days.

What's mildly funny is I had sushi at a really good restaurant the evening I went into labor and the texture & mild taste of the red snapper sashimi I had () were fresh in my mind when I had the placenta.

[Ianthe]

I WAS planning on planting mine with a tree for Sebastian. But, since I was transfered to the hopsital, they would not let me take it. I think they removed it from the room right after I asked- just in case I were to steal it! :

I still plan on planting a tree though

[Doula Gina]

There's a local midwife who encapsulates placentas for people - I had her do it . She cleans it, steams it with ingredients for good chi - jalapeno, lemon and some other stuff (I forgot), then dehydrates it in a dehydrating machine. Then she grinds it up and puts it into capsules. She also makes neat shapes out of the umbilical cord and dehydrates it, too. I'm putting that into Minerva's birth book. The funny thing I noticed about the capsules when I opened the container they were in, was that even after all that processing, and even though it had the other ingredients steamed with it, they smell essentially the same as my baby. Stronger and muskier, yes, but nonetheless, it smells just like Minerva. CRAZY?!! It kind of makes me happy, because I feel like if I hold onto a couple of capsules in a well-sealed container, I can smell what she smells like now, for a long time to come, long after she doesn't smell so juicy and newborny anymore.

[richella]

Dh thinks if I eat it it should be raw like sushi, and volunteered to prepare it for me.

The idea is very unappealing to me (I was vegan for 12 years!) but had some ppd last birth and I want to do whatever I can to maintain my mental and physical balance this time around. fortunately will be at a birth center where they are supportive of mamas keeping the placenta.

LizzyQ, I can't believe they wouldn't let you have yours! At the fsbc I had to sign a paper allowing them to keep/dispose of body fluids and stuff. I don't remember signing anything like that for my hospital birth. I wonder if you did? If there's any recourse? Of course, it wouldn't get you your placenta back.