Yes folks that is right I consumed my placenta after H's birth, not only did I encapsulate like you see in the green cup here but I also had pieces raw right after the birth to help stem my bleeding that was looking to be on the high side and if you had asked me if I could of done this a year ago I would of probably said " ewww gross" or "why would you" but I kept an open mind and researched it and decided it was something for me and the ewww thought I would of had in the past was just a reflection of our society's misunderstanding of the magnificent organ that is the placenta.
There are many benefits of placenta consumption:
-it was made by you for you and contains your hormones
-boosts iron levels
-has been shown to boost milk production
-reduces post-partum bleeding
-helps reduces the severity of the baby blues and reduces the risk of developing post-partum depression by quickly restoring depleted hormones
-can be great to take for when your cycle returns too and just for general periods of moodiness ect.
The placenta has very high levels of some vitamins and mineral, B6 being one of them which is the one which plays a major role in warding off PPD when ingested by the mother.
There are several ways for you to consume:
Raw- on its own straight after birth some women like to hold a piece in their cheek to stem bleeding, or some like to cut up into pill sized pieces and freeze then you just take it as you would a pill if you are worried about tasting it I suggest using something like OJ which is strong to hide the taste, or some women have like to have it as a placenta smoothie.
Tincture- is a rather subtle way to take it, and can be taken as needed not only for mum but for bub as well during times of stress like teething
Encapsulation- the process where you dehydrate your placenta in an oven on low or in a dehydrator for 8-12hrs, you then grind it up and put into capsules and take as you would any other capsule. This method is appealing to most because it is just like any other pill and the encapsulation process it rather easy to do yourself or for you caregivers/family to do.
Cooked in a meal- some people make placenta casserole or incorporate it into other cooked meaty meals.
Consuming fresh raw placenta will have the most nutrient value but any of the other ways still have huge benefits and is absolutely worth while.
My own experience was great and is something I would do again. I personally had some right after birth fresh and raw as pill sized pieces as did Pappa B which a lot of people would think was odd but I love that he did, he wanted to be a part of it all and I think its pretty cool how many men can say they have tried raw placenta!!!
My midwife also cut up some more pill sized pieces and popped the in the freezer for me to take before the encapsulation process was complete and she also cut up the rest in slices and put in our oven on low which we then left for about 10hrs then I did the grinding and the actual encapsulating myself.
I can say from my experience it helped with my energy levels, reduced the duration and severity of the dreaded baby blues, helped with my milk production and my PP bleed was light after the initial bleed after the birth and another thing I noticed was with H she didn't get the hormone pimples all babies get after birth that badly only one or 2 at a time which was different to my other 3 little ones so I wonder if the hormones passed onto her through my breastmilk helped with that too.
You can see in the pic above that we also did placenta prints, we did both sides H's side and my side I love that we have this and I can show H her "tree of life" I will get them framed and hung when I get around to it.
So for anyone interested in learning more about this here are some links I found useful :
http://www.cafemom.com/journals/read/1577334/Placenta_Encapsulation_Instructions_w_Pictures
http://codenamemama.com/2012/01/09/placenta-smoothie-recipes/
http://placentabenefits.info/medicinal.asp
http://2doulasonamission.com/benefits-of-placenta-medicine/
Someone raised a question about this the other day and I thought you might have came across some research...
ReplyDeleteGiven that part of the function of the placenta is to prevent toxins from passing to the foetus, is there any danger of ingestion stored toxins when ingesting your own placenta?
Not wanting to come across anti-placenta-ingestion (it sounds like a great idea from what I have read), just thought it was an interesting question :-)
Good question :) It does act as a filter but does not store all the toxins it filters them and whatever is left gets processed by the mothers system, it does not hold all that has been filtered as say an air filter would. If it did it would be far too toxic. There are some things like heavy metals though that the placenta will store so if a mother smokes the heavy metals in the cigarettes will build up in the placenta over time leaving it questionable whether or not the mother should ingest it. Hope that helps
ReplyDelete