what did you do with your placenta?

[Beth-TX]

I'm just wondering what other people did with their placentas. we saved ours in the freezer with the intention of planting it with a new tree. we didn't get around to it until our dd was 8 months old...

[jayasun]

funny you should ask-

we are just thawing it today for ritual tomorrow. we dug a whole last fall (before the freeze and dd's birth) thinking we were going to home birth and would burry it in the ground under the tree dd was conceived in :) she was hospital birthed instead and we brought the placenta home frozen.

i am a little sad to get rid of it- like it will close a chapter in my life. wierd huh? i am excited to see it- i never got to in the hospital. it will be the only part of the birth that i see- only it's 6 months later! (see my birth story under vbac section: did anyone have general anesthesia?) it feels really strange and final, but i am trying to concentrate on honoring my body for making the placenta which gave life to dd for so very long... for the amazing things my body did and keeping my intention on giving back to the cycle of life!

my friend still has her daughters in the freezer- shes 15 now! dd doesn't want to part with it.

[lorijds]

Here is another option that I recently read about in the latest issue of Midwifery Today: Making a print of the placenta. Since then we have done a couple at our birth center, always just with the blood, but the article talks about which paints to use, how to even paint the vessels so they stand out differently, and which sort of paper to use.

The prints come out looking great! Like a tree or bush. I think it would be a sort of neat thing to have hanging in your house. Then maybe you wouldn't have to feel so badly when you part with it, because it is always there. ALso, we encounter alot of people who don't really want to keep the placenta--they live in a rental, and don't want to lug it around until they have a place of their own to bury it, or they are just squeamish and don't want it, or rarely, it might need to be sent to pathology, and in that case, if they would distort it or mess with it, then you would still have a print of it in it's original state.

Anyhow, it is something I had never thought of before, and now I wish I would have done it with each of my girls. It is really easy to do, and it turns out looking fantastic (of course, I love to look at the placenta, it is so interesting, and I know not everyone is like that...).

Just an idea, whether you keep the placenta or not, you can still do this.

[USAmma]

Will the hospital freeze it for you? It didn't even occur to me to bring it home (although I did save dd's cord stump) but now I'm thinking for next time it would be neat to plant a tree over it or something. I did ask to see it and the doctor was really nice about taking the time to explain the different parts of it to me. I thought it was so cool to see it.

Darshani

[Augustine]

We had both our children at home and planted the placentas with trees over them. But we have since moved and we didn't get totake them with us... which I am still sad about! (':(')

We a pregnant again and this time I think we plant the same trees for my older kids at the same time we plant this little ones.

I had a freind who miscarried at home t 12 weeks and baptised and burried the baby and placenta with a tree over it with all her older 6 kids a part of it. I think that it made a big impact on her family as they sort of rejoice the little life it had instead of mourning it. a little off topic, sorry.

Yes, a hospital will save the placentajavascript:smilie(':love')
love for you, all you have to do is ask for the tupperware container thing that they send it to pathology lab in and take that home. At serveral births I have put that container in a plastic and tapped it closed and labeled it (;-)
and put it in the nurses refridgerater until it is time to go home, most a OK with it, if not just put it in the patient fridgerator and don't tell them. You can always send it home with you doula or mom to put in your freezer at home....

[indiegirl]

Two years later it is in my freezer....

[greensmile]

see my post under Lotus Birth:D

[LaLaLuna]

We planted ours- first one under a dogwood and the second under an apple tree. Unfortunately we didn't dig the holes near deep enough so both those poor trees suffered a hellofa nitrogen burn the first year.:blush

I think not all hospitals will be so cool about you taking the placenta- midwife friend of mine used to doula in a hospital inthe midwest who were way uptight about "biological hazard material". My dr. was very cool and very po'd at the hospital and helped us sneak it out. 2nd birth was a homebirth and not an issue. We froze 'em til we got around to burying them.

Worked with a woman once who dried hers and used it as medicine (she studied chinese medicine) but have no idea how.

[MamaMae]

18 months and three moves later, ours is still in the freezer. :(

It kind of stresses me out a bit having it there....we keep thinking we'll be able to buy a house and finally plant it there. But that doesn't seem to be happening in the near future. So instead, we carry it around wherever we move, hanging out in the freezer. I want to DO something with it....but just can't come up with it!

indigirl....you make me feel better that I'm not the only one with a placenta STILL in my freezer!! :)

[Augustine]

She has moved tons of times and been in apartments, and all four of her children's placentas are in her freeze age 12 and down! lol

[Amber Boo]

wow! I am inspired by all of you! It never even occurred to me to keep the placenta. I've taken a really laid-back approach to pregnancy, childbirth, and all that...I shock some people with how un-detail-oriented I am. With my first, my husband told me (weeks later, when I thought to ask) that he took the whole deal out to the yard and burried it deep enough that dogs/cyotes wouldn't dig it up. I never did ask what happend to the placenta w/ #2. #3 we had to go to a hospital for personal reasons (lack of available peole for the birth team), so I just assumed they (the hospital) would take care of it...and I guess they did. Now, reading all of your comments, I am chargrined that I haven't been as interested or inspired. I love the idea of planting a tree to honor and commemorate the new child. Imagine each child having their own tree that began life with them! And since I am by no means done adding to my wonderful family, I have a chance to make good on all the great ideas. Thank you for giving me a new perspective!

[New Moon]

With my first at the hospital that would not let me take it home...yes the whole runaround about bio hazard (excuse me...its MY blood, why would I care). I even had signed something saying I would not let them have it beforehand...anyway:angry With my second I had a homebirth, kept the placenta in my freezer for a year. When I finally did plant it one day after my dds b'day I got my moon (period) back about 2 hours later. Kinda weird... we planted it under a Lily because that's my dd's name =) But we have moved since then...grandmother placenta was happy staying where she was so I didnt dig the Lily up. I wish I had known about placenta prints then, I think that would be really cool!
Blessings
New Moon

[Irishmommy]

We had a hospital birth the first time and I never thought about it. The second was a homebirth and it sat in the freezer for 2 years. We just planted it, but don't have a tree yet. We had dd2 put it in the hole herself. Of course, she didn't have a clue what it was, but dh took photos.

[Arduinna]

In the book Circle Round, they talk about taking the cord and shaping it into a spiral and saving it for each child. I assume they buried the placenta and just kept the cord.