You Did WHAT with Your Placenta?

9

placenta-shocked-womanI ate it.

Let me explain.  Five years ago, I gave birth to my first child: A beautiful, healthy girl.  I had many of the typical fears that a new parent has –  Can I do this?  Will I be a good mom?  Will my life ever be own again?  Four days postpartum, the panic really set in.  I cried all the time. I couldn’t sleep for the fear that my baby would stop breathing as I rested. I felt trapped with this child and couldn’t foresee a time in the future when life would feel good again. I started the countdown until my daughter turned 18, so that I wouldn’t have to parent anymore.  At my two week post-partum doctor appointment, my OB diagnosed me with post-partum depression.  He prescribed some medication and gave me the recommendation of a very good psychologist.  Through counseling, I realized that my sleep deprivation played a big factor in my mental state, so I gave up breastfeeding to share the load more  equally between my husband and me.  Within weeks, my world turned around and I started to see the joy in my newborn.  My Dr. said I had a very quick recovery – and I’m thankful for that – however, I always wondered what I could have done differently.

During my pregnancy with my son, I discovered placenta encapsulation.  At first, I was repulsed.  Eat my own placenta?  Why would anyone do that?  Then I considered the benefits.  Ingesting your own placenta has been known to increase your milk supply, shorten the postpartum bleeding period, and- most important to me- balance your hormones to help with the “baby blues.”  Many animals have been known to ingest the placenta shortly after the birth of their own young.  This fact makes my stomach turn, but it shows that this practice already happens in nature.  Furthermore, you are ingesting a substance that was already a part of your own body.  All the hormones that it contains are perfectly made for you.  So if it didn’t work and just provided a placebo effect, I thought to myself that there would be no harm done.

Very few scientific studies have been completed about placenta encapsulation, however there are studies in process.  For more information about the known research and more placenta benefits, check out http://placentabenefits.info/articles.asp.

So, how does this work?  First, I contacted someone, before the birth of my son, to encapsulate my placenta .  My amazing Bradley Method teacher, Wendy Diaz, does placenta encapsulation out of your own home (Check out her website here).  This way, the placenta never leaves your possession.

Then, I told my doctor I wanted to keep my placenta.  He looked at me oddly.  I ignored that.  I get it.  It sounds like an odd thing to do.  I had a c-section due to my son being breech, but this was no problem in terms of keeping my placenta. I also told my surgical nurse that I wanted to keep the placenta and she was the one who reassured me that she was taking care of it.  She prepared a little cooler bucket with ice and this is how my placenta was given to me.  My parents took it back to my house for me while I was still in the hospital.

Wendy came to my house to prepare the placenta.  She cooked, dehydrated and pulverized it.  Then put it into little, purple berry-flavored capsules.  The process took about two sessions for a couple of hours each session.  After that, I received my placenta pills.placenta-pills

I was told that every time I felt anxious, just take 3 pills and I should notice that I’ll feel normal again.  Not magical.  Not blissful.  Just normal and able to handle a baby who screams every day for two hours at 5pm.  I did as I was told and my post-partum with my second child was remarkably different than with my first.  I wasn’t constantly anxious.  When my son slept at night, I didn’t need to check on him every five minutes.  Instead, I slept.  Although I was wary about it and refused to open my breast pump for the first month, breastfeeding worked out and I am still nursing him 10-months later.  I also healed from surgery remarkably fast.  I went to my daughter’s Meet-the-Teacher for Kindergarten with my six-day-old in t0w (ok, that was probably ill advised.  I hurt a lot after that excursion).

I used my placenta pills for about three weeks until I stopped having those feelings of sadness and anxiety.  After that, I stopped.  The remaining pills now sit stored in my freezer where I can use them during menopause.

So, did they work?  I like to think that they did.  Pregnancy and the resulting newborn were a little less stressful the second time around because I knew what to expect.  However, my anxious feelings did melt away as soon as I took my pills.  Even if it is a placebo effect, the result is exactly what I hoped for.

If I had to do it all over… I would eat my placenta again.

9 COMMENTS

    • Thanks, Joanne! I think of it as just putting something back in your body that was already there. Plus, you can get your pills flavored 🙂

  1. I am always happy to see others talk about the benefits of placenta encapsulation. It worked wonders with both of my babies. Way to go JoAnn

    • The capsules are definitely not bad Susan! Plus, you can also choose to have the encapsulation done outside your home so you never have to see the placenta.

  2. Hi! Great post…I had a similar story, really bad post partum depress with my first, so a friend suggested I encapsulate my placenta with my second. I figured what do I have to loose? I swear by it now, and if any moms to be ask me advice…well let’s say I am sure it’s not a advice they have heard before.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here