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Natural Birth
Placenta Encapsulation?
I am taking a Bradley Natural Childbirth class in preparation for our LO and the Doula who teaches it suggests placenta encapsulation as a way to ward off PPD. It makes sense that most mammals ingest the placenta after birth, and it holds a lot of hormones (which are deficient after birth) so Im up to trying it. However, I haven't been able to find any recent studies with measurable research to go in its favor. I have heard a few moms praising how it worked for them though, and would like to know what others have experienced with/without it. Have any of you done this or something similar and seen good results? Thanks
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Re: Placenta Encapsulation?
I chose not to, the NB hormones are keeping me well regulated just fine. I would have to have some serious concerns / risk factors to encapsulate, I just don't think it is necessary for everybody. Do what feels right to you.
I didn't with either of my girls, and I felt full of beans with them both. Although obviously if I'd done I could well have felt even better.
Where I am the only option is to send the placenta off for encapsulation, and I feel a bit weird about that. Also it's culturally common to bury the placenta, so I currently have a placenta in my freezer until we work out where to plant a tree.
Elizabeth 5yrs old Jane 3yrs old
I looked into it and even knew a lady who did it for a reasonable price in my area but I decided not to.
I'm probably in the minority on this board, but I'll share my perspective just so you can hear another take on it: I think it's natural that our bodies expel the placenta after birth, and thus the hormone surge we experience with pregnancy naturally declines. In fact, a new wave of hormones are supposed to surge to support lactation and so it is natural that one set of hormones dramatically declines after birth and a new set dramatically starts. Immediate postpartum is a time of transition in so many ways, and I don't think mitigating that transition by ingesting what our bodies have already expelled is necessary, or even helpful.
IMO, PPD probably best warded off by sleeping when the baby sleeps, staying in bed with your baby in those first weeks, and eating nutritiously (some one else should be cooking & cleaning though). I initially had some baby blues but it went away when I started saying no to visitors so I could literally sleep when the baby slept and my husband started bringing me all my meals in bed.
I am doing it because there is a local person who does it affordably who works with my doula. The doula will take everything to her after I give birth and bring them back to me within 48 hours.
I wasn't sure how I felt about it but I have severe issues with chronic depression and anxiety. I had to remain on my meds for the majority of my pregnancy and have been going through a weaning off process during my third trimester. Because I know there is a strong link between hormonal fluctuations and my depression/panic attacks, I have decided to take the pills. I am hoping that they will help enough to allow me to nurse for at least a while, before I have to go back on my medications. I don't know that it's necessary for everyone, but I'm willing to give it a try for the chance to be able to breastfeed.
this is curious b/c one of the benefits of placenta ingestion is INCREASEd milk production.
i ate mine raw. nutrients and potency are lost in the steaming and dehydrating process. i suffered from PPD after my first child was born and had not a day of baby blues after #2 when i consumed the placenta post partum.
the following is from a handout i provide to my childbirth class students.
placenta ingestion provides: Hormonal support; energy; nutrition. Helps with healing; prevents post partum depression; increases milk supply.
The placenta contains high levels of prostaglandins which stimulates involution (an inward curvature or penetration, or, a shrinking or return to a former size) of the uterus, in effect cleaning the uterus out. The placenta also contains small amounts of oxytocin which eases birth stress and causes the smooth muscles around the mammary cells to contract and eject milk. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placentophagy)
Related-research (from placentabenefits.info):
Placenta as Lactagagon
Placentophagia: A Biobehavioral Enigma
Placenta for Pain Relief
Effects of placentophagy on serum prolactin and progesterone concentrations in rats after parturition or superovulation.
Baby blues - postpartum depression attributed to low levels of corticotropinreleasing hormone after placenta is gone
Maternal Iron Deficiency Anemia Affects Postpartum Emotions and Cognition
The Impact of Fatigue on the Development of Postpartum Depression
Iron supplementation for unexplained fatigue in non-anaemic women: double
blind randomised placebo controlled trial
Have we forgotten the significance of postpartum iron deficiency?
Contraindications: With illness, encapsulated placenta should not be consumed if prepared according to Traditional Chinese Medicine methods (which is the steaming preparation of the placenta in the instructions section). Raw placenta may continue to be consumed as it was not prepared by TCM methods.
additional reading:
Menges, Maria. ?Evolutional and biological aspects of placentophagia,?
Anthropologischer Anzeiger 65 (1): 97-108, 2007. Abstact:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17444195
Stein, Joel. ?Eating Placenta, ? Time, 2009.
https://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1908194,00.html Video:
https://www.time.com/time/video/player/0,32068,27457107001_0,00.html
West, Jennifer, L., LM, CPM. The Natural Healing Power of the Placenta, 2009.
www.placentabenefits.info - has lots of info on the benefits of placenta via
encapsulation. Certifies Placenta Encapsulation Specialists.TM
https://placentabenefits.info/research.asp - research they have compiled
https://placentalremedy.com/ - Homoeopathic Placental Remedy
unless our bodies expel it because it does us no good in the uterus anymore since we cannot absorb the hormones that way. unless we expel it so that we can then ingest it!
this is also true. i think there is one mammal species other than human that does not traditionally ingest the placenta after birthing.
I had some pretty high risk factors for PPD, and was very worried. I looked into encapsulation and all of the benefits of it and sort of figured "why not?" When I talked to my H about it, he was like, "maybe it's placebo, maybe it's not, but I think you sort of have to do it now that you've looked into it like this..." The fact it didn't weird him out AT ALL and that he actually *wanted* me to do it sort of told me that he was also probably pretty scared of PPD and felt it was worth it to try it out.
I had maybe a day or two of slight baby blues. Maybe a day or two of a few tears here and there. Had an incredible recovery, no supply problems at all, no significantly negative feelings.
I'll be doing it again, for sure. I not only have all the same risk factors, but additional factors that include having two babies under 16 months old, obviously having a harder time getting out of the house a few weeks and months in with two so young, etc.
This time, I'm planning a home birth, and my midwife actually brought it up with me before I had a chance to tell her I had done it with my first (a hospital birth with a midwife). I believe in it completely.
I think it can't hurt to do the encapsulation. I did with my first, and ended up not taking it because the breast feeding hormones were making me high enough, lol. But I was so happy to have it as "back up." That's exactly what I'll do this time too - do it because if I don't there's no going back, and then take them if I feel I need them.
I figure you still get to choose if you encapsulate. If you don't, you have already made the choice. I like to keep my options open.
I didn't mean to cause any controversy, but the OP was looking for different perspectives and as the minority, I thought she should get to hear more than 1 perspective. To clarify what I meant:
In my original post, I meant "natural" in the sense of how our bodies are programmed to do exactly what needs to happen. Our bodies are programmed to expel the placenta. Of course anyone's free to then eat it, but I don't think that eating it is more natural than not eating it. I understand looking to the animal kingdom for insights on the matter, but PPD can occurs in animals as well when they are separated from their babies, which is unfortunately a common practice in our culture - others come visit and want to "help" by holding the baby for us or parenting books tell us to keep baby in a separate room to "teach" them how to sleep. My point was that avoiding those activities might be more effective in avoiding PPD than ingesting hormones.
I disagree with the statement that there's nothing to lose - you're giving yourself a power dose of hormones. Either that's good or it's bad for you, but it's not neutral. Either it corrects an imbalance you have or it could create an imbalance you didn't have originally. I believe the average postpartum woman is not out of balance and therefore does not need to be re-balanced by ingesting hormones. To say there are benefits for any woman to eat her placenta suggests that all postpartum women are in a state of hormone deficiency or imbalance; a state of abnormality. I don't think the postpartum woman is inherently abnormal; I think it's a normal transition time in one's life; while it's challenging and exhausting, it's also very sweet and I would say "natural" all on its own and I don't see reason to try to "fix" it.
exactly.
More Green For Less Green
I appreciate your POVs, cecily & pixie.
I am really glad I encapsulated and will do so again, but I really appreciate reading an opposing POV that isn't just, "ewww..." So thanks.
I have some pretty strong views on this after doing it.
Did it help with energy levels and depression after delivery? Perhaps. I immediately drank the broth that came from dehydrating the placenta and started the pills when I got home from the hospital.
BUT - I have had such low milk production that I am unable to breastfeed and have to exclusively pump. After meeting with a lactation consultant that is known as an expert across the country (Dr. Anne Eglash) she said experts have concerns about placenta encapsulation affecting milk supply. I told her I was under the impression it was supposed to INCREASE it. But she put it this way -- when you give birth you lose those hormones yes, but then your body realizes the baby is OUT and you need to start producing milk. If you keep replacing the hormones, your body is tricked into thinking it's still pregnant and may not produce enough milk.
If we have another baby I won't be encapsulating my placenta again. The benefits aren't enough to offset the milk production issue IMO!