Eating the placenta

COgirl29

Ok ladies.

This is a topic I did some research on about a month ago when my friend told me that she had something to tell me, but I had to promise not to judge. She said she had her placenta encapsulated and took those pills for a couple of months, and she swears by it. Mind you, this was her first baby so who knows if it actually changed anything. She said she believes they gave her more energy and kept post partum depression at bay (she has had a history of depression and worried about that).

Now I'm watching keeping up with the kardashians (guilty pleasure) and they are talking about it.

I could not find any real scientific evidence in my research that either eating your placenta, or taking the placenta capsules are beneficial.

Any insight?

DamnPrecious

Nope

Coco1236

When I was a teenager, my step mom's friend came over to our house and cooked her placenta up in a frying pan. Then her and her husband ate it together. This totally freaked me out at the time cause I was only 14 but now I can understand why they did it. I've heard that ingesting the nutrient rich placenta is super beneficial to both mom and baby(if you breast feed) but I don't know if there's any scientific research to back it up. I have never heard of capsulizing it but that seems like a good way to do it. Personally I don't know if its something I would do, but more power to anyone who does!

kiki1978

I think if you want to do it, great!  It's not for me though.

tootsscott

I think if I still had any morning sickness I couldn't even open this thread to read it. EATING my placenta.... *barf*

Nutrient rich or not.. It's still one big blood clot in my head!! Then again, I couldn't eat a twix that landed on the floor for 5 seconds!

rowanthefrog

I've also had a friend tell me about it. She did it with her second and she said she also recovered faster, didn't have any PPD and had loads more energy. I'm considering it but its about $300 so it will probably depend on how I am feeling financially at the time. I haven't had PPD with either of my pregnancies before. Energy sounds nice though.

A

ChuggingWater

I have looked into it BC I had terrible PPD the first time. Ultimately, I can't justify the cost.

susieandmarty

Yeah. I'm not gonna eat my placenta in any form.

susieandmarty

Coco1236 said:

When I was a teenager, my step mom's friend came over to our house and cooked her placenta up in a frying pan. Then her and her husband ate it together. This totally freaked me out at the time cause I was only 14 but now I can understand why they did it. I've heard that ingesting the nutrient rich placenta is super beneficial to both mom and baby(if you breast feed) but I don't know if there's any scientific research to back it up. I have never heard of capsulizing it but that seems like a good way to do it. Personally I don't know if its something I would do, but more power to anyone who does!

Why did they come to your house to cook and eat the placenta? Why would you do that at someone else's house?

katags

I am not doing this.

I want to put this out there though - be careful where you send your placenta to be encapsulated. I read once (it was a year or so ago, do not ask me where) that companies can and do put other supplements in the capsules. Make sure you know exactly what's going in there because you could have reactions to some of the other herbs/ingredients. So if you find a place you trust, and believe it'll do you good, go for it. I personally think its weird and gross and I'm skeptical it actually has benefits.

cpm1223

No.

I know it's supposed to do great things, but for me, it just will not happen. I can't even imagine eating (even if it is encapsulated) something that was growing inside of me.

sarahlm619

I couldn't even read the comments without gagging!

So -- that's a big NO to whether or not I'LL be doing it!

sarahlm619

AND -- while I'm watching keeping up with the kardashians on DVR -- if they actually go through with having the family eat it without knowing -- I'd be LIVID!!!

HappyDoc

It will be a no for me. I am a very squimish person and even if there are benefits, I don't think I would be able to get past the fact that I am eating bodily tissue. 

JaneW2

The hormonal benefits are unclear.  They might make things worse, they might not be properly absorbed through the digestive tract. 

Nutritionally, the placenta is definitely full of iron.  If I was a poor hunter-gatherer in prehistoric times, and the food supply was always uncertain, eating the placenta might help increase my chances of recovering from the birth rather than becoming dangerously anemic.

However, now we have grocery stores and iron pills.  Other folks can do what they want, but I am NOT eating mine!

sugarland726

Yeah...this is so not happening. As someone who doesn't even like tomatoes, there is no way in hell I could get myself to eat it in any natural state, and I can't get past still consuming my placenta even in a pill format. I have heard excellent stories of the good benefits, but it is not for me. I don't judge anyone who choose to do it though.

LabPupLuv

Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!

LMCB12

I could probably endure taking the pills but I couldn't ever eat it. I won't be doing encapsulation because I think my recovery with DS went fairly well overall.

Jen4033

FWIW - I have depression history as does my mother & sisters. So I was kinda concerned about PPD coming on for me after DS was born. It never did though. So having depression in your history doesn't necessarily mean you will have issues with PPD for sure.

It probably has some benefits, but it is very much so, not for us!

LadyJ2949

sugarland726 said:

Yeah...this is so not happening. As someone who doesn't even like tomatoes, there is no way in hell I could get myself to eat it in any natural state, and I can't get past still consuming my placenta even in a pill format. I have heard excellent stories of the good benefits, but it is not for me. I don't judge anyone who choose to do it though.

This exactly.

megngregk

What? This is a thing? No, I'm sorry...that's too much for me to handle. To each their own.

PreDempsey

If It wasn't expensive, and what appears to be a PITA to get your placenta from the hospital without it being mishandled, I might consider encapsulation. Too risky and it's going to be the last thing on my mind once baby is here.

goldenB

I don't know enough about it yet, but I am very open to it.
It's on my list of things to research and look into it.

2Dash

I will not be doing this - eating a healthy diet and continuing to take my prenatal will be fine by me.

bethughknee

I'd like to look into it some more. A mom blogger who I really like did a funny and also informative post about her doula encapsulating hers. I'm mostly interested because of the possible help with PPD.

https://www.modgblog.com/2010/12/26/there-are-pictures-here-of-my-blood-and-guts-you-will-judge-me-and-then-maybe-puke-so-thats-fair-i-think/

Winnieella

I have heard about it, but I just can't get over the idea. In high school I had a science teacher who ate hers, and then passed out the recipe she used to all of us. She even brought some of it in...after that, I was turned off. 

Lena122

Eating it completely grosses me out but I'd consider encapsulating it into pills if it wasn't so expensive. Sure more energy would be nice but unless it cures cancer I'd rather spend my money on other things.

Kismc

I'm still doing research on encapsulation. I spoke to my doctor about it (to see if it was even possible to leave the hospital with the placenta) and his opinion was that it sounded like a good idea but he couldn't understand the benefits. He thought that because it is cooked, that the nutrients would be distorted.

Needless to say, I'm still on the fence. It doesn't gross me out and I don't mind the cost but I just need more proof of benefits.

Ninjafarmerswife

I don't think I can do it from a purely mental standpoint of knowing that even in pill form I am eating this big filtering organ that was in my body.  To each their own though and I'm really happy that some people feel like they get such a benefit from it.

AnnikaD20

Eww... no. I can't get over the idea of eating your own body parts.

Coco1236

@susieandmarty- They were hippies that lived in a yurt and didn't have a kitchen so they used ours. They named their daughter Sunmoondra Dolphin Rainbow Star!! haha they were weird.

wedbliss5

No.  Nor am I willing to taste my own breastmilk. 

moosebaby2011

No thank you! I didn't even want to SEE my placenta, let alone ingest it.

Armyratt

There is no scientific data supporting the claims that eating your placenta will help ease your post natal care recovery. Just read about it in the last fit pregnancy cause I was interested in doing this but there's nothing really stating it has magical benefits.

gina0485

No judgment to any others, but hell no! The idea of eating a pseudo-organ makes me want to gag.

housewifebecomesher

sugarland726 said:

Yeah...this is so not happening. As someone who doesn't even like tomatoes, there is no way in hell I could get myself to eat it in any natural state, and I can't get past still consuming my placenta even in a pill format. I have heard excellent stories of the good benefits, but it is not for me. I don't judge anyone who choose to do it though.

I love that you compared it to tomatoes haha...

fredtheredhead2

Nope. Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope.

 

 

casholmes

Coco1236 said: @susieandmarty- They were hippies that lived in a yurt and didn't have a kitchen so they used ours. They named their daughter Sunmoondra Dolphin Rainbow Star!! haha they were weird.

Oh my god Sunmoodra though.

miss071311

My sister is currently taking her placenta pills (encapsulated by a certified doula) and she has only good things to say... She is not as tired, not as stressed, not as hormonal, and not bleeding as much (this is her third baby). It cost $150. I will be doing it too.

ThankfulSnail

Coco1236 said:

@susieandmarty- They were hippies that lived in a yurt and didn't have a kitchen so they used ours. They named their daughter Sunmoondra Dolphin Rainbow Star!! haha they were weird.

I can't decide if this is hormones or sleep deprivation or what but I literally cannot stop laughing about this whole story, the name especially. Thank you so much for sharing!

mrsavee

miss071311 said:

My sister is currently taking her placenta pills (encapsulated by a certified doula) and she has only good things to say... She is not as tired, not as stressed, not as hormonal, and not bleeding as much (this is her third baby). It cost $150. I will be doing it too.

Are you by chance in the Bay Area? I wanted to know which Doula could do this?