Eating placentas

[naturallia]

Tell me why it's good to do this.

Are there any cons?

[DoomaYula]

My only con would be that it might not taste so good... but I know a lot of people cook it or do it in a shake or something.

I'm thinking of getting mine dried/put in capsules to take.

[Gumby]

my smoothie was made with veggie juice. tasted like a bloody mary, so i said after 12 hours of labor. who knows what else i said.

i was severely anemic after delivery and taking the capsules made an immediate difference. it was like i woke up after taking the first dose (i got them 5 days pp).

after i read about women doing this, it kind of seemed natural to me to do it. i'm prone to depression and i wanted to prevent any ppd as best i could. going pretty well in that dept.

cons...um, not that i can think of, but it's late.

[runes]

i made berry smoothies with pieces of mine.

i think it helped me tremendously.

[Khourtniey]

I heard it was supposed to help stop hemmoraging after delivery..

[Gumby]

Originally Posted by Khourtniey

I heard it was supposed to help stop hemmoraging after delivery..

definitely NOT in my case. I had to transport for bleeding, despite a smoothie, and every other preventative measure during pregnancy. red head genes??

[Khourtniey]

Originally Posted by BrittanySmiles

definitely NOT in my case. I had to transport for bleeding, despite a smoothie, and every other preventative measure during pregnancy. red head genes??

Maybe Maybe it has to be eaten straight for it to be effective? Ive no clue myself.. just wondering/speculating

[boheime]

It helps with hemmoraging, preventing PPD, and may help milk to come in faster or increase supply. It also helps recovery.

I plan on eating some with this baby to see if it helps with supply. I was going to try smoothies, but I just don't think I can. So, my current plan is to swallow small chunks and immediately chase it down with some type of strong tasting drink. So far I have picked up some V8 stuff.

I did put a small piece under my tongue after my last birth - just to see if I could do it if I ever needed to. Accidentally biting my cheek tasted worse than that piece of placenta. I even forgot about it and ended up spitting it out much later.

[pinksprklybarefoot]

I dried and encapsulated mine.

I have a history of depression, so I was *very* worried about ppd. I had no problems whatsoever. I was surprised at how few emotional highs/lows I had after giving birth. I attribute my nice, even postpartum moods to the placenta.

It was one of best pieces of advice my midwife gave me.

Feel free to pm me if you want detailed instructions. It was really easy.

[sanguine_speed]

I think I'm planning on encapsulating. Can you please put instructions on here? Is there any advantage to consuming it not baked (raw)?

[pinksprklybarefoot]

Okay, here goes:

I am a dork, so I took pictures of it before I did anything.

Wash in cold water, then place in a pot of cold water (it doesn't have to be a huge pot - a large saucepan will do).

Once the water boils, remove from heat.

Remove placenta from water.

Once it is cool enough, slice into thin strips. I removed the cord at this point.

Place the strips on a cookie sheet (ours was nonstick - not sure if that matters). I placed the cord on the sheet in a ring. I saved that as a little momento, which is either disgusting or sweet, depending on who you are.

Bake at 150 overnight.

Once dry, place a few strips at a time in an electric coffee grinder (<$20). I collected the dust in a bowl and then put it in capsules I bought from the bulk section of Whole Foods.

I took three/day for about a month. I still have more in a ziploc - one placenta makes a lot of dust!

DF was worried about the smell, but it wasn't really strong. You could smell it the most when I was grinding, but after having the window open for a few minutes, it went away.

Not sure about the advantages/disadvantages to drying it other than I don't think that I could have stomached it raw.

Good luck!

[bluegrassgirl]

I've never done that, but I have read that in some cultures, its encouraged to eat the plancenta to help the mom get back some of her iron she lost during labor and delivery, and it also helps make breastmilk more nourishing.

This does make a little sense though. Most other mamalls eat the placenta after delivering.

Jessie
(single mommy to Emma, 3 years and Angela, 2 years)

[lyttlewon]

Oddly enough there haven't been very many studies on placentiophagia in humans. If you do a web search you will find conflicting information. Most women I have read benefited from the hormones in the placenta for helping with hemmorage, depression, energy and numerous other benefits. My MW has a friend with a business that prepares and capsulates the placenta for me. Here is a study I found done with rats http://cogprints.org/757/00/gustibus.htm.

The interesting thing to me is that humans, camels and water mammals (i.e. dolphins and seals) are the only mammals that don't consume the placenta. Our ape relatives consume it so it seems to me we most likely dropped the natural eating of it somewhere in our "civilization". I have lots of theories as to why that might be but different cultures have different reasons they may have listed as to why placentophagia was villified. IMO without any compelling evidence that it is harmful I don't see any reason not to since the rest of our animal family does.

[dancindoula]

As far as using it to avoid hemorhage, I have heard the most effective way at that point is to put a dime-size piece under the tongue or tuck it into the cheek so that the hormones rapidly transfer through the gum membrane and into the bloodstream. Swallowing it means your body has to digest it first and can take much longer to have any effect.