Anyone have experience with placenta encapsulation? Would you recommend?

wowash

curious if anyone has had any bad experiences with this? 
I am considering this pregnancy from fear of post partum depression. Curious to hear anyone else’s experiences, positive and negative. And if any of you still had post partum depression after taking pills? 

wildtot

Hi! Never seen you around here so you must be new.
1. If you haven’t already please go introduce yourself on the “introduction” thread.
2. Check out the “Read First” thread so you can better understand how this board functions. We are a very supportive community but we don’t like one off posts that would typically fit in other threads.
3. To back up #2, this would be great in the “questions” thread. We also have a mental health thread for mommas who have experienced such challenges (not just postpartum).
4. Some searching would show we had some conversations about this before.


with that being said, i had ppd for about a year and still have some down days almost two years later. I personally don’t think how consuming my placenta would help me as i had some depression and other life changing events that were not pregnancy related. But i don’t think it’s my thing regardless. Sorry not much help.

runsomewhere

Hello to you too (?)

We have a lot of great threads where this question would be a good fit such as https://forums.thebump.com/discussion/12724908/weekday-randoms-pt-1-2-19#latest or https://forums.thebump.com/discussion/12724948/questions-2-19-2-25#latest

To answer your questions, yes, I encapsulated with my previous pregnancy, loved it and will do it again this time. I had an amazing recovery and no PPD. It's impossible to tell if the placenta capsules contributed to that or if my experience would have been the same without them. However, since IMO there are no negatives of doing it, I'm going for it again. 

acunamatada

Hello, welcome! I see you’re new here. When you get a chance, introduce yourself in our introductions thread pinned to the top of the board, we like to get to know eachother around here. And more importantly, take a look at the **read first** thread also pinned towards the top of the board to get an idea of how this community works. For example, topics like this would be a better fit as a post in our questions or randoms threads. 
Welcome again! We’ve got a great group of ladies here! 
I haven’t encapsulated my placenta, but I know others have, from what I remember most didn’t notice any significant differences. You can usually pull up the old conversations about the topic by using the search function. 

becausescience

*lurking from March*

Studies have shown there is no benefit to doing this and it actually can be dangerous. A woman recently passed a blood infection to her baby through breastmilk because of this. There are also no laws in place to make the practice safe - the process doesn't kill all pathogens.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2017/06/30/her-newborn-kept-getting-sick-because-she-was-ingesting-placenta-cdc-says/?utm_term=.82b89e0a3a6b

comealongponds

Placentophagy is a placebo effect at best, dangerous at worst. Those that offer the “service” dehydrate many placentas in the same, non-sterile food dehydrator (not medical grade). There is a significant chance of cross-contamination and any prions and many infectious agents would not be killed at dehydrating temperatures and may infect the mother or the infant. 

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/66/wr/mm6625a4.htm

Kenya715

To each their own but I don't feel comfortable doing this with such a lack of scientific data to back it up. There is no way to tell if it works or not and why spend the money on something that could potentially harm you and the baby? FWIW, I did not encapsulate my placenta with my last pregnancy and recovered very fast from a c-section, had no PPD, and had a great milk supply. Good and bad things will happen regardless of taking the pills. 

comealongponds

Kenya715 said:

To each their own but I don't feel comfortable doing this with such a lack of scientific data to back it up. There is no way to tell if it works or not and why spend the money on something that could potentially harm you and the baby? FWIW, I did not encapsulate my placenta with my last pregnancy and recovered very fast from a c-section, had no PPD, and had a great milk supply. Good and bad things will happen regardless of taking the pills. 

Ditto to this. Emergency CS with an easy recovery, no PPD (despite preemie twins in the NICU), huge oversupply of milk.

runsomewhere

@becausescience and @comealongponds thank you for your comments. I think the skepticism and concern regarding encapsulation are totally valid. Also, I have seen a ton of placenta DYI encapsulation guides and even recipes, scary!

As I said in my post above, I do plan on encapsulating again but I'm not going to insist that it "worked" for me however I can't help but believe in some of its healing properties. The woman that did and will do mine has been a doula for close to 20 years and has been formally educated in midwifery. She has set safety and cleanliness procedures in place for encapsulation and I have faith that she knows what she's doing. 

wildtot

I had a fairly easy c section recovery too and over supply. My ppd could of been due to a tough pregnancy and other personal challenges. 

gingerbride26

....i didn't know this was a thing before this discussion.... 

acunamatada

gingerbride26 said:

....i didn't know this was a thing before this discussion.... 

People get real creative with their left over organs.. I said this last time but I’ll say it again because it’s hilarious.
My cousin kept her placenta and dehydrated it, not to eat... But to keep. She’s going to put it in a plant for her son “when he goes off to college.” Because that’s just what a teenager wants when he goes off to college. 

gingerbride26

acunamatada said:

gingerbride26 said:

....i didn't know this was a thing before this discussion.... 

People get real creative with their left over organs.. I said this last time but I’ll say it again because it’s hilarious.
My cousin kept her placenta and dehydrated it, not to eat... But to keep. She’s going to put it in a plant for her son “when he goes off to college.” Because that’s just what a teenager wants when he goes off to college. 

omg i'm rolling on the floor - thank you... DH wanted to keep DD's umbilical stub which I thought was weird...but it is in a ziplock baggie in her memory box with all her sonograms and baby shower cards... so you know what...everyone just do whatever they want.

acunamatada

@gingerbride26 you do you girl lol 

cseley321

acunamatada said:no

gingerbride26 said:

....i didn't know this was a thing before this discussion.... 

People get real creative with their left over organs.. I said this last time but I’ll say it again because it’s hilarious.
My cousin kept her placenta and dehydrated it, not to eat... But to keep. She’s going to put it in a plant for her son “when he goes off to college.” Because that’s just what a teenager wants when he goes off to college. 

I can only hope she gives it to him in front of all of his friends at his graduation party

stillcozy

better yet in front of his college roommate on move in day 

SmashJam

Speaking of things you could do with a placenta...has anyone else seen that "lotus birtb" article about leaving the umbilical cord ATTATCHED TO THE PLACENTA in a little pot until the whole thing dries up and detached from the baby?

acunamatada

@SmashJam YES.. Screams infection to me. Or worse... I have a big ass dog with a questionable palette. 

wildtot

@SmashJam ugh i can’t imagine the smell of a rotting organ! But seriously it’s already hard enough to bathe a newborn and not get the umbilical wet, must be super hard with carrying the placenta around too. 

hillbillywife

Haha @acunamatada same.. big ass dog eat everythingggg. He’d have zero qualms about snacking on a rotting placenta. Gag. 

SmashJam

Ew to the dogs eating the placenta! But I've seen goats eat each other's placentas so maybe its not that weird, lol. Except the whole attatched to the baby thing.

flockofmoosen3

I have seen people make artsy prints with their placentas. You know, for the living room... Or their kid's dorm room?