Time to talk...Placenta! - Page 2

[Sage_SS]

I'm really bummed. Now that I'm having a section I know that I won't be able to prep it on my own. And the only reason my gf was coming out was to be with my girls because we were planning on letting them be a part of the birth. Now she's not coming. I asked my mom, who thought it was the most disgusting thing she'd ever heard of. I reminded her that she ate cow tongue, fried it up nice and rare and sliced it. She also eats liver. I fail to see the difference between prepping and drying a placenta and eating the organs of animals.

[vivalamama]

Originally Posted by arahzel

If I'm having a hospital birth, what's the likelihood of me being able to keep the placenta?

I was just looking through the links above and there was a woman who won a court case to get her placenta back. I would think your best bet would be to talk to you doc or mw ahead of time, let them know you want it, and put it in your birth plan. It's nobody's business why you want it, so I don't think you'd even need to go there if you think they wouldn't be supportive.

I'm contemplating doing this (eating part of the placenta) as I dealt with depression last time around.
My concerns-
1) my mother. I really don't think she'd be supportive and I don't really want to go there with her. If she's on time for the birth (she's flying in) I don't really want to deal with 'hiding' it from her.
2) does cooking/dehydrating/encapsulating affect the hormones etc that you are supposedly trying to ingest? the raw smoothie might be an option I suppose, but does a few days of smoothie have the same benefits of weeks of a pill or placenta jerky?

[Sage_SS]

OK mamas... please help me! Advise!

I'm having a section and the friend that I thought was going to steam it and get it dehydrated for me just told me she doesn't think she can do it. It grosses her out.

I know I'll be in the hospital for at least 3 days. I read that your not supposed to freeze it before you dehydrate it to encapsulate it. So what can I do? My hubby refuses to work with it too. So does my mom. I really want to keep it and use it, but I honestly won't be able to ingest it any other way. I'm a visual eater and a super picky eater on top of that.

What can I do?

[hollyvangogh]

Eh...I'm having a hospital birth. It's just not something I want to have to deal with this time around.

[theboysmama]

It is ok to freeze the placenta before it is prepared. Although that is not ideal bcs it does lose some bennefits but the benefits of eating it in general far outway what you would lose if you froze it.
I froze mine last time as I didn't know I would be using it. Then when i needed it i encapsulated it (I didn't steam it first though). It had amazing results for me and i highly recommend you freezing it and doing it yourself if that is your only option.

[MamaSong]

You can definitely encapsulate it after freezing it. I encapsulated mine a year and a half later and the benefits were AMAZING! Don't fret if you can't get to it right away. Of course it would be great to have ASAP to prevent PPD and assist with the hormonal regulation, but when the time is right you will have it to take. I took mine after an ectopic pregnancy and after a miscarriage. I was SO GLAD I had it for those situations. Maybe more so than having it right after the birth.

I never steamed mine either. I have never even heard of steaming it before you encapsulate it. I guess I'm just pointing out that there is probably no "right" way. Just get it dried out, grind it up and put it in capsules if that's how you want to take it. Whenever you can.

[Lemon Juice]

So a coffee grinder works okay for grinding up the placenta? I have a small one...seems like it will take a while to grind the whole thing up! I am ordering the capsule kit soon and I think we'll end up using the oven on low to dry it out and save some for smoothies until that is done.

[theboysmama]

once it is sliced and dried there isn't very much of it so a coffee grinder worked fine for me and it was so easy to clean out afterwards.

[Lemon Juice]

I have my blender and grinder ready and the capsule kit is just waiting to be used! I'm so excited!


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[phatchristy]

I just noticed this now that you've bumped it...any good links I could read up on?

Honestly, have had 3 homebirths and have done nothing special with the placenta. DH didn't want it in the freezer either.

[theboysmama]

Originally Posted by phatchristy

I just noticed this now that you've bumped it...any good links I could read up on?

Honestly, have had 3 homebirths and have done nothing special with the placenta. DH didn't want it in the freezer either.

read post #6 in this thread adn I posted tons of links

[Luv2bemommy]

The placenta tincture sounds like a neat idea. I missed that one before. I might just do that! Anyone else?

[Lemon Juice]

I think I'm going to do a tincture as well. I want to do it all!

My mw will do some placenta prints for me and will help cut it up for smoothies..enough to hold me over (in smoothie form) until it's dried out. We'll then dry some out for capsules and if there is enough I'd really like to save a nice chunk for a tincture. Hopefully that sono is right and the placenta is nice and big and we can do it all

[Megamum2008]

My doula has told me that the hospital here is fine about placentas, if you want to keep it, they'll just put it in a big margarine tub or something and throw it in the freezer... Do you all think thats ok, not having it rinsed and prepped and such first? I want to at least encapsulate it. If I was bleeding a lot I might try to get them to let me eat some, but I have no idea what they'd be like about that... But I think I can dry it out in my oven and grind it myself easily enough. I might just make pills as I go, or at least worry about that part a bit later.
I just wonder if I should insist I get it home fresh and unfrozen to prep it ( I could likely convince my Dad to do that part for me... dunno about my mom), or not cause too much fuss, let it freeze and deal with it once my family has gone home for the holidays...
I'm pretty worried about PPD, and am at a high-risk for it... but at the same time, you have to pick your fights, and I'm not sure if this is something I want to cause too much fuss about KWIM?
Opinions?
Thanks