So I grossed out my book club by bringing up the fact that some moms choose to eat their placenta after birth. I personally don’t think I could do that. But, next time*** I think I will have the placenta dried and made into pills. I could swallow that!
Afterbirth for Dinner?
I am totally going to forward this link from People Magazine, so they know I do not make this stuff up! And there are other special people like me out there, who would do something as interesting as drying and ingesting their own placenta.
*** there will probably be no Next time, but I have GREAT PLANS for if there is.
Hehe:) That was a pretty funny article but I might be willing to try placenta pills one day!
Or go for the ultimate gross-out and eat it RAW. And watch people’s faces when you tell them. Looks that are slightly squeamish but curious at the idea of dehydrating and encapsulating turn into horror and revulsion! It’s great! 😀
To be honest, I ate it frozen in a smoothie and couldn’t taste a thing. I think freezing it killed too many nutrients though because I still got PPD. Maybe I would have gotten it worse if I hadn’t eaten it? Maybe next time I will think about encapsulating, although it sure sounds like an awful lot of WORK.
Isn’t that cannibalism? To eat a human organ seems like it would be considered cannibalism.
Hmmm, I never thought of it like that. Maybe it is more like biting your nails. Since it is part of yourself it wouldn’t be cannabalism.
Though it is apparantly Placentophagia. There is an official name for it.
No. See, what you need to tell people is that eating your placenta is called Placentophagia and there ARE benefits. 😉
As quoted from this page
“studies have shown that eating the placenta can curb postpartum depression, replenish nutrients, increase milk production, and slow postpartum hemorrhage.”
and
“The placenta contains high levels of various vitamins, such as B6, which can help curb postpartum depression. Eating the placenta enables the mother to “reclaim” these vitamins and put them to use in her own body. Placentophagia may also increase a mother’s blood levels of a hormone known as CRH (corticotropin-releasing hormone), a known stress-reducer. This hormone is normally secreted by the hypothalamus.
According to a study performed by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), “During the last trimester of pregnancy, the placenta secretes so much CRH that the levels in the bloodstream increase threefold. However, it was also discovered that postpartum women have lower than average levels of CRH, triggering depressive symptoms. They concluded that the placenta secreted so much CRH that the hypothalamus stopped producing it (http://placentabenefits.info/medicinal.asp).” After childbirth, the hypothalamus doesn’t immediately receive the signal to begin producing CRH again, which can lead to postpartum depression. Eating the placenta can raise a mother’s CRH levels, reducing symptoms of postpartum depression.”
So there! lol
Several moms in my playgroup have encapsulated their placenta. The ones who purchased the kit and enlisted some extra help for the process had positive experiences and said it was “no big deal.” A few of the women even put a bottle of capsules in the freezer to take during menapause.
I plan to try it for my upcoming birth.