[amberskyfire]

I am hearing that more and more mothers are choosing to consume their placentas after their birth. (The practice, by the way, is known as placentophagia.) We all probably know that the placenta is full of all kinds of wonderful nutrients that our bodies need after giving birth, but the main reason women choose to consume them seems to be that it prevents postpartum depression. So far, I have not been able to locate a woman who consumed her placenta and DID have PPD.

1. If you consumed your placenta, did you consume it raw, dried, or cooked?
2. Did you experience PPD or PPP after your birth?
3. If answer to #2 is "no," did you experience any "baby blues" at all after the birth?

And, by popular request:

4. Do you have any experience with depression?

Here are my answers to get started:

1. I consumed one bite raw just after the birth, then the rest cooked a day later.
2. I experienced absolutely no PPD or PPP whatsoever.
3. I experienced absolutely no "baby blues" or any kind of depression whatsoever.
4. Yes, but not recurring.

I'm very interested to see what experiences other mothers have had.

So far, on another message board, I have had a large number of women who did experience PPD after eating their placentas, however, they all stated that they had a lifelong history of depression and that they felt markedly better while taking their placenta pills compared to the days they did not. Those are great anecdotal findings!

 

[velveeta]

I am eager to see this, as well. I will be posting myself in a few weeks. I have had PPD with both children, and not yet eaten any placenta. But, you can bet I am doing it this time!

 

[hildare]

1. If you consumed your placenta, did you consume it raw, dried, or cooked?
I consumed it freeze dried and encapsulated. This was provided by a local service, but from a friend working there.
2. Did you experience PPD or PPP after your birth?
Not a bit! I felt fine. I also had a particularly disappointing birth, c-section, nursing troubles (which we did resolve) and I commonly have mood swings associated with PMS. I had a Dr. once tell me I had PMDD... but I felt pretty good after the birth.
3. If answer to #2 is "no," did you experience any "baby blues" at all after the birth?
None that I could think of. I felt tearful once, but my mood felt very stable.
I highly recommend placenta consumption. I am convinced that placenta consumption is extremely helpful for hormonal swings. <3

 

[Gena 22]

No placenta consumption here, and no PPD. For me, being home made the difference. Birth was gentle and respectful, and I got these two beautiful babes out of it! (Forgive me for butting in, it's their birthday and birth is on my mind.)

 

[JennTheMomma]

I will be encapsulating my placenta after the birth of my second child in April. I had PPD with my son, so hopefully the placenta will allow me to not have PPD or baby blues (I do not have a history of depression, only time was when I had PPD).

 

[Sihaya]

1. If you consumed your placenta, did you consume it raw, dried, or cooked?
I consumed a smoothie with a chunk of raw placenta in it immediately after the birth, then a friend encapsulated the placenta and I took the capsules for several weeks following the birth.

2. Did you experience PPD or PPP after your birth?
Nope, not at all.

3. If answer to #2 is "no," did you experience any "baby blues" at all after the birth?
I had some feelings of baby blues in the time between the birth and when the placenta capsules were returned to me a couple of days later. After that, I didn't really experience them again until long after the pills had run out, due to stressful circumstances when he was 5-7 months old. It was still very mild and manageable.

Could we maybe add a question about whether the mother has a personal and/or family history of depression and/or PPD/PPP?

My mother had PPD with all four of us and it got worse each time until she was finally hospitalized with PPP after her last birth. I also have family and personal history of depression and have never felt as good as I felt while I was taking my placenta capsules.

 

[milansmommy]

1. If you consumed your placenta, did you consume it raw, dried, or cooked?
Dried and encapsulated

2. Did you experience PPD or PPP after your birth? no

3. If answer to #2 is "no," did you experience any "baby blues" at all after the birth?

I started to until I received my placenta pills and as soon as I started taking them I started feeling great. With my first baby I didn't consume my placenta and I had PPD and messed up hormones for well over a year! I'm definitely a believer!

 

[Nicole730]

I'm definitely going to watch this thread. I have another question too, if you don't mind amberskyfire.

Did it help with any of the "momnesia/brain fog"?

I was so mentally out of it for weeks after DS was born and I'm hoping consuming my placenta this time will help with that.

 

[TIFF4NY]

1. If you consumed your placenta, did you consume it raw, dried, or cooked? I had mine dried and encapsulated.

2. Did you experience PPD or PPP after your birth? No I did not.


3. If answer to #2 is "no," did you experience any "baby blues" at all after the birth? I don't think I had this at all. I always found myself feeling calm even through the exhaustion and times when my daughter was crying loudly in my ear. 3 months out and I am feeling very good about being a first time mom.

I definitely recommend this!

 

[TIFF4NY]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nicole730 Did it help with any of the "momnesia/brain fog"?

Yes and no. The exhaustion of the first few weeks would reverse any progress I had regarding that. But now I am 3 month pp and I feel like I have my brain back. This probably started about a month out.

 

[amberskyfire]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nicole730 I'm definitely going to watch this thread. I have another question too, if you don't mind amberskyfire. Did it help with any of the "momnesia/brain fog"? I was so mentally out of it for weeks after DS was born and I'm hoping consuming my placenta this time will help with that.

Good question! I don't know about other mothers, but eating my placenta did not help at all with the "momnesia" afterward. I can't even remember the first two weeks except that I was totally blissed out. Good thing we took photos

 

[broodymama]

1. If you consumed your placenta, did you consume it raw, dried, or cooked?
2 smoothies a day for 3 days, then the rest was encapsulated. (This was with baby #3)

2. Did you experience PPD or PPP after your birth?
no

3. If answer to #2 is "no," did you experience any "baby blues" at all after the birth?
no

Note: I did not experience PPD after my 1st birth. I did experience very severe PPD after my 2nd birth (even though it was a beautiful, respectful gentle homebirth - for me, the birth location didn't affect the PPD. I can see where a traumatic birth could contribute to PPD, but having a wonderful birth did not prevent PPD.)

 

[Nicole730]

Quote:

Originally Posted by amberskyfire Good question! I don't know about other mothers, but eating my placenta did not help at all with the "momnesia" afterward. I can't even remember the first two weeks except that I was totally blissed out. Good thing we took photos

Quote:

Originally Posted by TIFF4NY Yes and no. The exhaustion of the first few weeks would reverse any progress I had regarding that. But now I am 3 month pp and I feel like I have my brain back. This probably started about a month out.

I guess I should clarify, I'm not expecting to be all there the first few weeks, heck I'm not even all there right now (9 months pregnant).

DS was born in April and it was late August before I finally started feeling clear-headed. And I don't think it was for lack of sleep, he was in my bed, with both of us barely waking up for nursing.

Thanks for the answers though! And for starting this thread amberskyfire, it is helpful to us first-timers

 

[dannic]

My story is different. I froze mine in hopes of not using it, had ppd and overcame my disgust at 8 mos postpartum. Dried, encapsulated, smelled like minerals and jerky.
It helped quite a bit and I will do this first thing next time (in August). I had ppd with my last two, but not my first. GL!

 

[Mama2MyMonkeys]

I am really fascinated by this! Where did you all send the placenta to be encapsulated?

 

[Belle]

Quote:

Originally Posted by amberskyfire 1. If you consumed your placenta, did you consume it raw, dried, or cooked?

Cooked and dried. We steamed the placenta first and I had a piece of the steamed placenta. Then I dried and encapsulated the rest.

Quote:

2. Did you experience PPD or PPP after your birth?

No

Quote:

3. If answer to #2 is "no," did you experience any "baby blues" at all after the birth?

I was pretty emotional for the first couple weeks and could burst into tears spontaneously. I wouldn't even call it baby blues though. I could be happy and burst into tears too.

Quote:

4. Do you have any experience of depression?

Yes. I was on Paxil for a couple years for anxiety. I weaned myself off of it before I got pregnant with #1.

 

[AnnieNimIty]

Sorry to add a question, but how big were the chunks of placenta that went into the smoothies?

 

[Juvysen]

So considering doing this this time 'round...

 

[zonapellucida]

I would love to encapsulate. Directions anyone???

 

[jennica]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Red Sonja Note: I did not experience PPD after my 1st birth. I did experience very severe PPD after my 2nd birth (even though it was a beautiful, respectful gentle homebirth - for me, the birth location didn't affect the PPD. I can see where a traumatic birth could contribute to PPD, but having a wonderful birth did not prevent PPD.)

It's true that birth location does not affect PPD because PPD is a biological illness and is not caused by trauma. Birth trauma causes traumatic stress, or postpartum PTSD, not PPD. PPD is a misdiagnoses of birth trauma because women are not screened for trauma in the postpartum period. Also, there is no lesser diagnosis for trauma other than PTSD (though birth trauma that does not fit the criteria for PTSD is sometimes referred to as "traumatic stress", that is not an official diagnosis). Therefore women who had a traumatic birth are labeled with PPD. It is a really important distinction to make because PPD and trauma are not treated in the same way. PPD usually goes away on it's own after a year even if untreated, trauma does not go away until it is worked through. PPD responds well to medication, trauma does not respond to medications (though some symptoms that come with it can be relieved). PPD has a biological cause, trauma is the brains normal response to a traumatic event. If the birth was traumatic due to mistreatment, and a woman is diagnosed with PPD, then the medical community is basically saying they had nothing to do with her symptoms and they were a result of her own biology.

Anyway, back to the topic. I'm planning on doing this this time. I am at a higher risk for depression because I have already suffered a postpartum mood disorder once, so I really want to do everything I can to prevent that from happening. My Mom is going to encapsulate my placenta for me. I have read mixed reviews online about this. Some say it helped, some say it didn't. I am looking forward to a real study being done on it, but to me it makes logical sense and I view it as an experiment. I also think it is healthy regardless of it truly prevents depression or not.