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Placenta encapsulation and Rh factor

6K views 11 replies 4 participants last post by  mwherbs 
#1 ·
I know the placenta consumption thread has been around forever I just had a question about encapsulation(or consumption) and the Rh factor. I was pondering this, as an Rh negative women married to a Rh positive man, because I have wanted to reap the benefits of placenta for recovery purposes.

I have had 9 pregnancies-3 that resulted in 1st trimester m/c and 6 healthy babies. I have had the rhogam shot for all the m/c and during pregnancy for the 1st 4 babies, then after all but one of them. Unfortunately the one Rh- baby is a girl! So this is my question, I have seen posts about how placenta encapsulation/consumption can negate the need for rhogam. Unfortunately I have not seen any research on this subject. I am wondering if I should take the capsule I am planning on making from my dd#3's placenta, born last week, or should i scrap it. She is Rh+ and I already had the rhogam because i could not again decide if i should or shouldn't.

Has anyone read any studies about this? I realize it is a taboo subject and may not get much research funding, just wondering what everyones thoughts are?
 
#2 ·
Have you been introduced to the positve blood type? If you for sure have not been sensitized to the antigen of positive blood than you should not need the Rhogam shot. But I see that you have already had it.

I am not too clear on what your question is.

You can still encapsulate your placenta and use it for other purposes.

I have never heard of a placenta taking the place, so to say, of rhogam.
 
#4 ·
I have wondered about the same thing. I know that many more foreign proteins of things we eat find their way into our blood stream than once was thought. Personally I would probably not recommend it . The placenta is baby's tissues, so if the baby is rh+ then the placenta would be too.

By the way Birth is considered an exposure because when the placenta detaches it disrupts maternal and baby(placental) vessels so blood does come into direct contact with blood , so rh immune globulin is given to short circuit the immune response telling mom's body don't bother to make antibodies they already exist .If mom already built antibodies then the thought it to not give the immune globulin shot...
 
#5 ·
From what I have come to understand (I am also RH- with 2 kids.) You can eat/digest positive blood without you building up any antibodies. The thing with being Rh- is that you do NOT want to build up antibodies to positive blood because than if you get pregnant again and say that babe has positive blood than your antibodies will attack the babies blood which can do some serious damage to your babe.

To the previous poster it is not true that during all births that the fetal blood will mix with the mothers blood so as to sensitize the mother to the positive blood. I had my baby over a year ago and my daughters positive blood did not mix ith my negative blood.
 
#6 ·
Foreign proteins enter our bodies/blood stream at varying degrees through our digestive tract, we can even find foreign proteins from things like milk and eggs in breast milk.
So maybe yes maybe no as far as eating foreign blood and and an organ would be fully digested and not enter our blood stream. Hormones have long been though to not be able to survive the digestive tract and yet hormone action is though to be part of the benefit of eating uncooked encapsulated placenta or even eating raw placenta.

As for blood mixing here is a site that has several pic of placental/maternal circulation, in particular there is a photo of the anchoring villi and you can see how closely interwoven the tissues are , when the placenta sheers off the uterine wall vessels are broken, not just maternal side but on both sides and blood is mixed. The amount of blood most likely makes a difference,( this is why some midwives believe long delays in cord clamping will reduce chances of sensitization, less baby blood in there to cause an interaction) as far as sensitization goes but is not the only detail, ABO differences can short circuit rh sensitization .

http://php.med.unsw.edu.au/embryology/index.php?title=2009_Lecture_8
 
#7 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by mwherbs View Post

Foreign proteins enter our bodies/blood stream at varying degrees through our digestive tract, we can even find foreign proteins from things like milk and eggs in breast milk.
So maybe yes maybe no as far as eating foreign blood and and an organ would be fully digested and not enter our blood stream. Hormones have long been though to not be able to survive the digestive tract and yet hormone action is though to be part of the benefit of eating uncooked encapsulated placenta or even eating raw placenta.
Does the same thing hold true for eating cooked meat-or digesting bovine or goats milk? Do other mammals besides rhesus monkeys have the Rh factor? I never thought about that. Would a Rh positive mother nursing a child who negative cause antibodies to be formed in her child? I never thought about it that way before-very interesting?! Could I potentially be sensitized from eating meat or eggs. I am not a vegetarian or vegan so this interests me much. I eat very little meat, mainly because of a natural aversion to it, is that why? So many more questions I never thought about before!
 
#9 ·
I am A-, DH is A+. I don't know the blood type of our daughter. I refused the Rhogam shot both during and after pregnancy with my DD's birth. I am not sensitized to RhD.

Blood mixing can occur, but I absolutely do not believe that it ALWAYS occurs, in a physiological birth and 3rd stage.

In the original trials for anti-D with prisoners who were 100% exposed to RhD+, the rate for sensitization was about 30%, no?
 
#10 ·
Blood mixing always occurs, during 3rd stage, but it does not necessarily mean that it will cause sensitization. Maternal and placental vessels are severed when the placenta is expelled . it seems that there is a greater chance of sensitization if there is maternal hemorrhage what isn't defined is if lack of uterine tone leading to hemorrhage may be associated or if after a hemorrhage there are more potential antibodies ...
 
#11 ·
Blood mixing does not always occur. The capilaries that end up breaking away are the capilaries that are on the maternal side of the placenta that was connected to the uterus. So it would be maternal blood that may release. Fetal blood capilraries are tucked futher into the placenta so they would not routinely split open. Infact, the best way to avoid mternal-fetal blood mixing would be to have a birth attended with a hands off care provider and zero interventions.

Quote:
Originally Posted by mwherbs View Post

Blood mixing always occurs, during 3rd stage, but it does not necessarily mean that it will cause sensitization.
 
#12 ·
I recommend you take a good look at the pic of the slides baby's circulation definitely penetrates mom's tissues that is how the placenta implants ... If the bwby's circulation was tucked away then the baby would not be able to have nutrient exchange the way it does.
 
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