Anyone planning to eat your placenta? - Page 3

[melanyh]

i'm now considering consuming a small part raw or in smoothie form and drying the rest. i can't believe the 180 i've done on this this pregnancy. i just don't want to feel like i felt last time ... do you think swallowing a small piece whole will work? i don't want to have to chew it ... that'd send me over the edge.

[fireshifter]

I'm actually super-creeped out by it. No problem with other people that do it, but I just can't fathom it. I might keep it, but no idea what I would do with it as we live with my parents and have no place to plant anything. I could totally see the coyotes coming and digging it up...

Jen D>

[3for3hb]

Originally Posted by melanyh

i'm now considering consuming a small part raw or in smoothie form and drying the rest. i can't believe the 180 i've done on this this pregnancy. i just don't want to feel like i felt last time ... do you think swallowing a small piece whole will work? i don't want to have to chew it ... that'd send me over the edge.

It's taken me three pregnancies to finally come around. We saved my first in the freezer but with all our moving around, never were able to plant it. I actually forget what we did with it. The second one we dehydrated and with this one I will swallow a piece whole... quickly. Then have a little more in a smoothie, maybe like a raspberry or strawberry smoothie.

A note on planting placentas: Be sure you dig a very deep hole and that the roots of whatever you plant don't touch the placenta. It's a very hormonal organ and will kill the plant/tree if it's too close.

[eveblac]

I'm debating it. It's either that or a Lotus birth, but I think I won't be able to make a decision until "game time" ie when the placenta is out. If it looks unusually appealing then :

and my partner, though 1000% supportive, thinks I am gross. And by that, I mean, he says don't expect him to eat any of it...

But I've been reading up, and the more I read the more I am thinking of eating it. And what's funny is I am vegan but I don't have any qualms about munching down on the placenta, especially with all the touted benefits. Reduce bleeding, help contract the uterus, promote a good milk ejection reflex, etc etc.

The reason I was thinking of a Lotus birth, is more of an emotional healing thing since my son's birth went so out of control (Managed "Vaginal" delivery in a hospital )

I like this thread

[mommaduck]

Only if I started hemoraging...

[lovermont]

Originally Posted by eveblac

I'm debating it. It's either that or a Lotus birth...

We're discussing the possibility of a lotus birth.
From what I've read the benefits of eating the placenta are to prevent hemorrhaging and ppd- right? Neither are a concern for me so I think the lotus birth makes more sense for us. I was all about considering consuming the placenta but I don't think I need those *benefits*- make sense?

[nikag]

This is a trend I likely won't be participating in. I did too much reading about prion diseases to ever want to eat anything human. I wouldn't want to risk willful exposure to a TSE. If there were some way to test the placenta for the existance of prion particles, then maybe....

[Jennisee]

What are prion particles and TSE?

[sofysmommy]

Yes I am, I had suffered from PPD in the past and I am NOT going through that again. I have taken antidepressants for most of my life and they do not work for me. I personally do not think it is gross, not like you are eating a finger or an internal organ.:

[KariM]

You know, when DD was born the midwives asked us if we wanted to save the placenta and I thought they were crazy! I had absolutely no interest in it - thought it had served its purpose, IYKWIM.

This time around I'm honestly considering saving it and consuming it.

I haven't yet decided what form that might take. Could do a smoothie for right after the birth and then might dry and encapsulate the rest.

I just hear so many stories of BTDT mamas who did consume the placenta and had fewer postpartum issues with energy, hormones, etc.

[nikag]

Originally Posted by Jennisee

What are prion particles and TSE?

A TSE is a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy. A prion is the infectious particle that causes a TSE. Examples of TSE include mad cow (BSE), Kuru, and CJD.

So far, there are no cures for these diseases because of the revolutionary nature of the infecting agent: the prion (it is mostly protein - some say all protein, but it is able to duplicate so scientists wonder if it might contain an undetectable trace of nucleic acid). TSE's are brain matter deteriorative and cognition degenerative diseases. Autopsies of people and animals infected with these diseases show brain matter with holes burrowed through it (this is where the term spongiform comes from - like sponge). The prognosis is always escalating cognitive dysfunction ending in death.

There is some speculation as to how these diseases originated. No one really knows. Some think they may be linked to a genetic mutation long ago. But the fact that it is exhibited in multiple species makes a genetic mutative link less plausible. What IS a definite connecting factor as to the occurrence and spread of these diseases across multiple species, is the existence of some form of cannibalistic practice in each species individually. For all researchers know, the first occurrence could have originated from the practice of placentophagy. There's just no way to know.

The prion disease Kuru is thought to have originated in Papua New Guinea among tribes who ritually ate the brains of their deceased but since the bovine variant of the diseases became widely studied, it was found that infection can be passed through eating blood, marrow, blood meal, and other parts of the body.

For me personally, for those reasons, cannibalism is just not something I want to mess around with, regardless of what temporary benefits the practice may offer.

[Quaniliaz]

Not in your ddc, but I'm definately thinking about it this time around. I think I could manage a smoothie - and we'll have to see if I'm up for encapsulating. I don't think my dh would do it - he's a vegetarian, and I think he'd be a little grossed out. Really, all I'd have to do is cut it up - I'm sure he'd do the rest. Maybe my sister would do it - she is due four monthes before me - we could swap encapuslation.

[PinkDog]

This is not something I will do. No freaking way. However, eveblac, I don't see anything odd about being vegan and still considering it. I mean, sure, it's an animal product, but since you're the animal in question, you can give yourself consent to eat it, you know what I mean?

I'm vegetarian, but refusing to eat the placenta doesn't come from an ethical standpoint for me; it comes from an "ew, gross!" standpoint for me. I can't even look at pictures of placentas, and this freaking placenta made me so effing sick for the first 13 weeks while I was growing it, that I really just want it completely out of me, no matter what.

Now if hubby gets all sentimental about the placenta (which I can't imagine) and wants to slap it in a tupperware, take it home, and plant it in the yard, that's okay by me. But that is where my relationship with this organ ends.

[Smokering]

I think I'll be capsulising.

When I first came across the 'eating placenta' concept on MDC, I came very close to throwing up (first trimester, in my defense!). I told DH about it, in a 'You wouldn't BELIEVE what some wacky people do!' kind of way, and to my surprise he said 'Oh, well, that's kinda gross, but you are prone to depression... why not?' It took me a while to get from the 'I wish I could' stage to the 'Actually, I think I'm gonna do this!' stage, but here I am. I really doubt I'll be able to eat it--I wish I had the oomph for at least one smoothie, but I have grave doubts on the matter. But in capsule form? I don't find that particularly gross.

DH did blanch a little when I told him we'd have to do it ourselves, as nobody in my city does that kind of thing (AFAIK). But to his eternal credit, he gulped and said 'Well sweetie, if you give me instructions...' Truly, a man worth his weight in gold.

[takasmom]

Originally Posted by nikag

For me personally, for those reasons, cannibalism is just not something I want to mess around with, regardless of what temporary benefits the practice may offer.

Thanks for this..very informative. I could see how it would be a concern if you were eating random placenta from someone else...But how would it work exactly eating your OWN?

[nikag]

Originally Posted by takasmom

Thanks for this..very informative. I could see how it would be a concern if you were eating random placenta from someone else...But how would it work exactly eating your OWN?

That's a good question. I'm not exactly sure. But I would imagine that since the genetic differences between individuals of the same species are trivial in the grand scheme of genetics, that there would still be a significant risk involved.

The deciding factor for me, is the fact that to my knowledge individuals of a particular species are not designed to consume themselves or others of the same species - and the existence of TSE's (and the fact that they share cannibalism in common) is proof of that. The risk factor that seems to be common across the board is that the amount of genetic variation between the individual consuming and the individual consumed must be small (i.e., the same species) - which is why there aren't reports of the diseases jumping across species barriers unless the individual consumed is already infected, while the origination of the disease within a species is sporadic, unexplained, and only solidly linked to the incidence of cannibalism.

It is also quite disturbing that the diseases have only yet been seen in mammals. One distinctive characteristic that most mammals share, is the utilization of a placenta in ontogeny.

By the same token though, the placenta is formed of the same sperm and egg that form the fetus, so if genetic variation is a significant risk increasing factor, then there may be just enough variation (because of the genetic component formed of the sperm cell) to increase the risk. It would be roughly the genetic equivalent to eating the embryo - who is genetically, a completely separate individual.

Additionally, if by chance genetic variation does increase risk, then I would be less likely to offer it to my husband, siblings, or friends.

[Jennisee]

Good point about the placenta containing genetic material about the father. I hadn't thought about that.

Originally Posted by nikag

The deciding factor for me, is the fact that to my knowledge individuals of a particular species are not designed to consume themselves or others of the same species

Don't most mammals eat their placenta?

[nikag]

Originally Posted by Jennisee

Don't most mammals eat their placenta?

It is true that some do.

But mammals are a relatively recent addition to the world species population in terms of evolution. I don't know how long mammals have been practicing placentophagy, but I wonder how and if it corresponds with the incidence of TSE's.

The first known (18th century) form of TSE is scrapie, which is the varient of the disease that affects sheep - exclusively herbivorous mammals except perhaps, for the practice of placentophagy.