Eating the Placenta? Yuck! Ack! Gross! - Page 2

[maxmama]

Originally Posted by Night_Nurse

Do you deliver in a US hospital? If so, maybe it's just a hospital policy thing. It would be nice if all hosptial's offered it. I've just always been against policy at every place I've worked due to it being coined "medical waste". It may even be state law where I live. Not 100% sure because it doesn't come up that often.

Yup. Washington State. We're a little different on the Left Coast.

[Night_Nurse]

Originally Posted by maxmama

Yup. Washington State. We're a little different on the Left Coast.

OT but awww man, my dh & I really want to move there. We love how people in WA think & we love the no personal income tax and how your state's Medicaid doesn't pay for circumcisions.
But...it gets so cold there! :

Back OT - that is great that hospitals in WA offer the placenta to pts that want it!
Maybe the south will catch up (one day).

[lisarussell]

Originally Posted by Night_Nurse

OT but awww man, my dh & I really want to move there. We love how people in WA think & we love the no personal income tax and how your state's Medicaid doesn't pay for circumcisions.
But...it gets so cold there! :

Back OT - that is great that hospitals in WA offer the placenta to pts that want it!
Maybe the south will catch up (one day).

WA medicaid also pays for MW home deliveries, too.

Only they don't call it Medicaid, they call it "Medical coupons." I had it with my 4th pregnancy and I couldn't grasp the name of the program. I just couldn't say the words, they sounded so lame. They still do, but I've lived here long enough now I am used to it.

On a topical note, I was so grossed out by the idea I steered away from all the discussion with as much repulsion as if they'd been discussing the eating of diapers. "Just don't go there, sicko..."

Www.placentabenefits.com has the research and information in an orderly format. I didn't use her kit but I did encapsulate mine. It was a little time consuming, but honestly, it was so so worth it. I, too would have done ANYTHING to avoid PPD and I am not a western-medicine consumer, I probably would have cracked my noodle before ingesting prozac or zoloft or anything. I am just not a medicine taker.

After the birth I did cut off a little piece and dipped it in granulated sugar, it looked like a gumdrop. I placed it on the back of my tongue and swallowed.

It was as light as air and had absolutely no flavor.

I think if I ever have another (which I don't plan to, six is enough) I will just cut it into teeny pieces and freeze them because I think raw is best. Then I'd swallow those like pills. The whole smoothie think I think would make me vomit. I heard though that you can't taste it at all. I would know, though.

Good luck, PPD is a horrible hell of an existence and I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. I think that i probably would eat dirty diapers if it would keep me away from ppd.

[Thompson'sMommy]

I also thought it was yuck! But I think I would consider it. Actually I am considering it for my next. Freezing it is a good idea.

How much do you have to eat at a time?

[swimswamswum]

I had mine encapsulated by a doula affiliated with my birth center. My midwife gave it to her and she dropped the capsules at my house. I think eating it made a HUGE difference for me (see my sig).

[lyttlewon]

Originally Posted by Meg_s

but honestly I would have eaten anything if it meant not getting ppd again.

Here is a study looking at the affects of placentophagia on mice. http://cogprints.org/757/00/gustibus.htm. It can help with milk production and RH factor. We are the only primates that don't consume the placenta.

I had mine dried and capsulated, my MW knows a woman that does it, so the benefits may have been muted a bit vs eating it fresh.

I don't think it is gross. It was a part of my body. I think it is way more disgusting to see some of the things people eat and consider a delicacy-for no reason really. Like escargo yuck. I didn't get PPD this time. I don't know if that is because of the placenta or because of other factors. My situation is different than the first time. I was anemic with DD and I was working full time. So there were other factors that could have contributed that weren't there this time.

:

[dubfam]

I am totally grossed out by the idea of eating placenta. I don't eat much meat (I was veg for 6 years) and any type of raw meat really grosses me out.

I had really bad PPD with my first son, and it was HELL.
It ruined so much of his babyhood for me...I was miserable and hated life.

When I was preg this last time I decided that it would be worth it to eat the placenta, no matter how gross it might sound.

My MW cut it up for me and put it in plastic baggies. I froze the baggies and would thaw them out one at a time. Each contained enough placenta for 2 smoothies. I put lots of strawberries and other fruit in the blender, and dumped the placenta in right out of the baggie without touching it (the placenta) and blended. I could not taste it at all. It definitely felt like "Fear Factor...The Home Version" or something...wheres my 10 grand for eating this??!!

BUT it helped me SOOOOO MUCH!!!! I have had NO Depression this time!!! I have been so happy and energetic and everything has been so perfect, even thought there have been some really stressful things happening in my life (nearly lost our home...etc) I have been coping better than I would even if I wasn't postpartum.
I also had very little lochia bleeding, healed very quickly and had very high energy. I really think the placenta made all the difference in the world.

It was so worth it to eat it, and it was NOT gross in a smoothie, and it felt so totally right to consume it. I also feel like Silas (My Baby) got benefits from the placenta through my breast milk. I really believe that humans are supposed to consume the placenta, but our society is pretty grossed out by it.

Bon Appetite! :

[anitaj71]

Placenta stirfry with an ice cold beer . . . yummy

[LotusBirthMama]

Originally Posted by eshanamama

Does the hospital let you take it home?

they offered it to use here in CT. it was really nonchalant...:So, do ya want the placenta?"

i was so taken aback i said no, but i kick myself for it now.

[BiscuitBaby]

.

[heidirk]

I am definately eating mine next time. Smoothie anyone? :

[Night_Nurse]

Originally Posted by BiscuitBaby

In our area we have a search and resue team that trains dogs to locate missing and desceased people. You can doante your placenta and they will use it to train the dogs. They bury it and train the dogs to search for decomposition in the soil. If we don't keep ours, I will donate it.

I think that is so cool!

[michelle o'keefe]

eating the placenta?

it's funny. my mother (who is not crunchy at all) had a dream before I gave birth to my son that my husband and I were cooking up the placenta on our coleman camp stove and then we ate it! I had never told her that people do this...where did she hear about it?

we actually ended up planting an azalea on top of it, but i marveled at it when we placed it in the earth. the hospital where i ended up giving birth to my son was amazing. I asked to take the placenta home...in the delivery room someone told me that it was on its way elsewhere but they would look into it. i thought yeah right, i'll never see it but 2 hours later a nurse brought it to my maternity room in a bucket and put it in the closet. in all the hullaballoo with baby photo ops in carseat, tutorials on using a sitz bath, etc..it was left behind. when we arrived home, there was a message from the hospital saying we had left something in the closet and did we still want it? YES! our midwife picked it up on the way to our house for a post partum check up and a few days later we fertilized the earth with it. I wish I had heard of these recipes earlier because I may have had DH shave off a piece for a smoothie? maybe I'll try it next time. would just one sampling help with the ppd or do you need to take it for a while?

[gerlassie]

I was just passing by and had to stop. I have seen 2 programs ( 1 on HBO ) where guests were invited over after a birth to share/eat the placenta. In both cases it was cooked and prepared as a pate. I watched in horror as this plate was passes around and everyone sampled. It stopped in front of a girl who said that she was a vegetarian and when it was explained to her that it did not come from a fin, fur or feathered source but rather the after product of the recent birth, she gladly indulged. Generally having a strong stomach and able to tolerate viewing or hearing just about anything, I will admit that this one messed me up a little bit. Since I'm not one to consume my body by-products, I just didn't understand. I mean, I understood why they wanted to do this and how important it was to share this wonderful life giving organ with their friends but, why??? It seemed a little canibailstic to me not to mention gross. Really. If given the oportunity, planting the placenta with a birth or memorial tree is a wonderful idea...sharing with mother earth. We're expecting our third baby very soon and I have every intention of leaving my placenta, mucus, blood and other bio-bits at the hospital. I hope I haven't offended anyone.

gerlassie

[Collinsky]

I have thought eating it was a good idea, biologically speaking, since I was pg with my first... however I never could bring myself to do it. Just couldn't do it. I just had my fourth baby, and I was *determined* to do it this time. I had my hubby cut me a very small piece about 2 hrs after the birth when I was bleeding quite a bit, and it was SO EASY. I braced myself, squared my shoulders, told myself worst case scenario was it would be gross and I'd spit it back out. I really just had to override my "Eww" factor and go for it. So Dh cut a tiny bit, and rinsed it well, and I held it in my cheek for a few moments (I've heard that's best to stop bleeding) and then swallowed it with a drink, just like a pill. It had NO TASTE. None. I don't think I could have chewed it, but to hold it and then swallow it was much easier than I had thought it would be. It really didn't seem like "meat" to me at all. More like tofu LOL. I did that three more times, and the bleeding stopped. I've eaten some more of it since - my Dh cut it up and put it in the freezer, and every now and then I take a bit out, thaw it a little, and cut off a small bit at a time and swallow it like a vitamin...and I have to say that this has been a ridiculously easy recovery. I absolutely can not believe how much better I feel now than I have a week pp with my other births, even the easy recoveries. I wish I had just bitten the bullet before!! Especially after my second birth, when the PPD hit hard. I really think it would have made a HUGE difference.

If the idea of eating placenta is really just revolting to you, have you thought of encapsulating it - you or someone close to you dehydrates it and puts it in pills. I am thinking that is what I will do with the rest of my placenta. Check out www.placentabenefits.info, she offers a kit to make it easier to do it yourself.

[the_lissa]

I thought it was gross too. I had it in a smoothie so I could not taste or smell it.

I didn't dry and encapsulate it because of the time issue and I read that cooking or dehydrating it kills some of the benefits.

[Limabean1975]

Aye yi yi. The more I read this thread & follow links, the more I am convinced I must do this next time 'round. But I keep thinking of the logistics -when will DH ('cuz I ain't doing it!) have time to chop it up! And the last one was really big! I can only imagine the big slippery mess it would be on our cutting board....and what my mother would be thinking!

[lisarussell]

it is SO working. I really feel excellent, so much like my normal self.

I wish more women could get past the gross factor to allow themselves do what it takes to feel this fantastic. I would never have admitted that I encapsulated mine- in fact, I wasn't going to tell anyone. my husband still doesn't know. I did it when he was at work. He thinks I threw it out after inspecting it for missing pieces (we UC)

I didn't notice a difference in my milk production. It's more like my energy level, my attitude, my ability to communicate and keep up with housework and the amount of smiling I do.

I am so glad to NOT be suffering PPD or SAD this year. I have never had a better Winter in my life.

[Limabean1975]

So, how long does it take to chop it up & encapsulate it? Is it a messy job? Difficult or easy? My memory may have inflated things, but I just remember this GIANT slippery organ . . .

[Thursday Girl]

when i first heard about it i thought it was gross. But the more I heard , the more I came around to the idea. i wanted to eat it last time, and I prepped people, explaining that it can help with bleeding and that if I started bleeding really bad I would eat it. But i didn't bleed badly. I know my husband and my sisters would go ape poop if i ate it. i'd have to do it on the sly somehow. I would liek to do it next time I hae ababy though. I really feel as mammels we should be doing it.