Placenta encapsulation

Beckyf321

Anyone plan on doing this or looking into it?  

mrsstuessy

There was some chatter in the Q&A Feb. 5th thread about this. Not against having another thread, but it was talked about there so there might already be some info for you. 

lovelongdog06

I'm on the fence, but leaning towards it. It might be a giant worthless thing but it's something I didn't do last time and it would be nice to at least have the opportunity to try it and see if it helps milk production at all. Cost might be a factor for me.

mrsstuessy

If it was totally free I would probably give it a try. But, it is just not something we can afford right now. I don't really put a ton of faith in eating placenta either. So, it isn't really worth the money to me anyway, even if we could afford it. But, if someone wants to give it a try I'm not going to judge them for it at all. I love checking out my client's placentas (as well as my own). There is so much variety in them. They are so cool looking!

SnarkasaurusRex

I'm with @mrsstuessy. As a scientist(-type person, haha), I have a hard time putting a lot of stock into it since the results are so varied. It's stupidly expensive in my area (like everything else), so I don't feel like the risk is worth the money for us right now. One of my good friends is an IBCLC and she SWEARS by eating the placenta, and did with both of her pregnancies, but she had severe PPD issues with one and milk supply issues with the other, so I don't know how much the placenta actually helped her. To each their own, though; I'm certainly not going to judge anyone who does.

I didn't get to see my placenta up close last time...they actually had it in the bowl to show me and I got super lightheaded at seeing the blood and almost passed out, oops. They are super cool looking though...and from a biology standpoint it's pretty amazing that our bodies can grow those things to sustain a tiny human.

MWoodside

I had my placenta encapsulated with DD2 and am having it done again this time. My doula is trained so she gives a discount to clients. I think it's $125? Last time my placenta yielded 200 capsules.

Each birth and recovery is different, obviously, but I can say that my recovery with DD2 was so easy compared to DD1. I am sure a lot of factors play a part in this, but if encapsulation contributed at all it was worth it.

My milk came in much faster/better, I had so much energy, I never had a trace of the baby blues or PPD, I bled a lot less post partum. I felt fantastic.

My BFF had really serious PPD after her second child and had no trace of it after her first so that really freaked me out and I wanted to do everything possible to prevent that from happening to me. So that was my main motivation the first time I chose to have my placenta encapsulated, but now that I had such a great experience I will have it done after any births going forward.

I choose the raw method. Not TCM.

cafedisco

I had mine done with DD1 and will if it's OK with this one. I'm GBS positive so I haven't researched if the antibiotics you get in labor make it OK to do or not.

It's just personal but it made a huge difference for me. I felt much more blue on days when I forgot to take my placenta pills. I took a bunch to try to help my milk supply so I ran out of pills very quickly and when they were gone, my depression hit. Hard. For me, it's worth it. My milk supply didn't benefit but I was later diagnosed with IGT so it makes sense that I didn't receive that benefit. 

If my placenta can be used, I'll be having pills made as well as a tincture to last forever. 

MWoodside

GBS+ didn't impact my encapsulation @cafedisco.

cafedisco

Thanks @MWoodside. My former midwife casually mentioned it during a class and I just hadn't followed up. Her comment was more along the lines of "you wouldn't really want to consume it after all those gross antibiotics pass through it..." So I figured she's just pretty anti antibiotic. She's also the one who falsely told me that if I tested negative later in pregnancy, I wouldn't need the antibiotics, which is wrong. 

MWoodside

Yeah some midwives encourage not using the abx if you are + and doing a hibiclens protocol. I researched it b/c I am not a fan of abx in general and really try to avoid them if at all possible. But personally I chose to get them b/c the risks scared me. But with my second birth it was too quick for the second dose and baby was totally fine. They just cultured her after birth and there was nothing concerning so we didn't have to stay the extra night.