Thanks to one of my google alert emails, I stumbled across this article about Anderson Cooper’s talk show: Would you eat your placenta? Cooper saw a headline in New York magazine about the idea and, not surprisingly, thought WHAT?! WHO DOES THAT?!
When he had Sanjay Gupta on the show, Cooper asked him about it. Yep, totally a real thing, called placentophagia. It’s a great source of nutrients and the main reason it’s consumed after birth, I think, is to help ward off postpartum depression.
Okay. When I was pregnant with Ryan I think I heard about this. I thought… that’s disgusting, no way, no how. EVER. Gross. So if that’s your first reaction too, I feel ya.
But…. if you’ve EVER gone through postpartum depression… or any form of depression… I am pretty sure you’ll change your mind. I am pretty sure you’d try practically ANYTHING to prevent feeling that way ever again.
And that’s how I feel about it now.
Even if it’s a placebo affect. If it helps, awesome. I know what I went through after Ryan was born and it probably took me an entire year, if not more, to get out of it. It’s not a place I ever want to be again. It’s things I never want to feel again. I don’t know how I could–I don’t know how I’d survive that again.
Okay, straight up EATING a placenta (cooked) still strikes me as gross, but most women have it ground into powder and put in capsules to swallow them like pills.. like any other vitamin. That, I can do.
And now Anderson Cooper is talking about it. That makes it a big deal, right? I mean…. if everyone else starts eating their placenta, wouldn’t you want to, too?! 😉
I have a guest post coming up on this issue from a great friend of mine. It’s full of more information and her story, so stay tuned! I just happened to see this article pop up in my email and thought it’d be a great intro!
Have you considered placental encapsulation? Are you totally grossed out by the idea?
Yup I thought yuck… but I know the science as being nutritious is sound. I mean a cow eats her placenta after giving birth. It helps with milk production etc…
Still a little far out there for me. Even if it is dehydrated, powdered, and put into capsules.
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My midwife offered to dehydrate and then encapsulate my placenta after the birth of my second child and I took her up on it. It did help with postpartum depression, and later on after my period came back and came back with a vengeance I still had a few of the pills left over, and they helped balance out those mood swings as well. It may sound gross, but believe me it really can make a difference.
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I felt the same way (eww, yuck!) with baby #1 when my midwife suggested it. With #2, I’d done more reading, but not really sold on it. Now, however… I’m totally considering how to get it worked out. I suffered with PP anxiety/panic attacks with #1. With #2, I didn’t, but even so for #3, I’ll do what I can to avoid a repeat. My midwife doesn’t do encapsulation, and the closest encapsulation specialist I can find is 2 hours away. Probably a no go there. But, I found my cousin in law (5 hrs away) is a newly certified specialist, and she said she’d guide me through doing it myself. My husband is totally icked out. My MIL, who’s had 11 homebirths, and is totally into alternative medicine thinks it’s pretty far out there. But I’m thinking to do it anyway…
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I’m not sold on this either. I’m not knocking those who do it but for me it just seems a little too close to cannibalism. It may have good side effects but I’m firm believer that our bodies get rid of things for reason and I don’t want to see that a few years down line this practice turns out to be more harmful than good.
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