Women of ENA, have any of you "eaten" your placenta after giving birth?

[oitnb]

So to clarify I don't plan on having a child for a long time. This question is simply out of curiosity.

 

After watching an episode of keeping up with the kardashians, (yes I watch that show, it's my guilty pleasure, please don't judge me hahah) where they were talking about women eating there placentas, I decided to research it.

 

I guess it's a lot more common than most people realize, and there are a bunch of women who encapsulate it (make it into a pill form) to make it less disgusting.

 

Any women here done it? And what did it help with, healing, sex drive, milk production, ppd, ect?

 

Thanks!

[Lonewing]

It's a once in a lifetime experience, but otherwise, it's just another form of meat when you get right down to it. That being said, it's human protein, so your body can use it easier then other meats.

[Captain Obvious]

Placenta pizza

[Silverbirch]

No I didn't eat mine, but I really wanted to have mine to bury in the ground and plant a tree beside. Well, on the day of the birth, I completely forgot about that.

 

I definitely wouldn't want to eat my placenta. Well, I'm vegetarian, but I suppose there is no animal suffering with that at least. Still, I've completely lost the taste for meat. I'll bet you could grow amazing roses if you planted a placenta nearby. I'm really a bit confused as to why anyone would want to eat it though - I suppose dogs and other animals eat their placentas instinctively. My hubby said my placenta looked like a great big lambs fry.

[oitnb]

It's a once in a lifetime experience, but otherwise, it's just another form of meat when you get right down to it. That being said, it's human protein, so your body can use it easier then other meats.

 

I read, even though its not 100% proven, if you encapsulate it and take it over a bit of time it can help replinish hormones and ppd.

[oitnb]

No I didn't eat mine, but I really wanted to have mine to bury in the ground and plant a tree beside. Well, on the day of the birth, I completely forgot about that.

 

I definitely wouldn't want to eat my placenta. Well, I'm vegetarian, but I suppose there is no animal suffering with that at least. Still, I've completely lost the taste for meat. I'll bet you could grow amazing roses if you planted a placenta nearby. I'm really a bit confused as to why anyone would want to eat it though - I suppose dogs and other animals eat their placentas instinctively. My hubby said my placenta looked like a great big lambs fry.

 

It supposably has lots of health benefits besides the obvious protein. I would never eat it, I wouldn't be able to stomach it. If I did it I'd encapsulate it.

[mhowe]

Over the history of time, many mammals do it ---horses, cows.

I have never heard of humans doing it, though I guess it may have happened.

There are many other ways...like, your body doing it naturally...or injections if it does not.

[oitnb]

Over the history of time, many mammals do it ---horses, cows.

I have never heard of humans doing it, though I guess it may have happened.

There are many other ways...like, your body doing it naturally...or injections if it does not.

 

If other animals do it so instinctively maybe we should follow suit!

[mhowe]

Well, tigers eat their young from a previous "engagement" so as not to threaten the new male.

Not sure we should adopt that concept??!!!

[Lonewing]

It depends on your community. The more green your community is [hippies] the more you'll encounter it.

 

Once cooked up with whatever recipe you use, it's really indistinguishable. And this goes back to how it's cooked and who's doing the cooking and how knowledgeable that person is with cooking and cooking placenta. The most knowledgeable source would perhaps be a midwife, particularly one in the Green community, who's had a lot of experience with such things.

 

I can't say I remember any particulars about it, though I've been through Birth Day three times in my life [three subsequent siblings], having been raised by hippies who pursued home birth if and when possible. If I remember right, my dad mixed it up with beans to make a chili. It's like...perhaps a cross between liver and heart? I can't remember completely now, though I wish I did; you don't realize the significance of such things when you're a kid.

 

It's perhaps no more or less revolting as breast milk - which again, the western world has trouble with this one too. The idea that we can Eat anything from the human body, well, that's just disgusting...

[Seraphim]

Uh no. Would not appeal to me.

[itsallgrand]

Eh, did you all take part in the eating of said chili?

 

You mentioned it was like a mix between liver and heart. So heavy on the minerals and tough?

 

I haven't had any children. During my stint in high school volunteering in a hospital to decide if I wanted to pursue a career that way, I cleaned up after quite a few deliveries. I remember one lady wanted to keep it. Though she may have had in mind something like Silverbirch: I do not know what she planned on doing with it. I do remember what a human placenta looks and feels and smells like though. Oh good times! I was mostly surprised at how big a mess birthing actually makes; how far that fluid travels.

 

Anyways, placenta probably fits into the high protein low/no carb diet that is still so prevalent as of now and fashionable. It counts as a protein! I wonder if it would be in vogue to eat it if it had a copious amount of carbs like a donut.

[oitnb]

I'm not sure I'd be able to stomach eating it, like as a meal. And call me selfish, but I wouldn't want anyone else to have it. I'd want it for myself. I'd encapsulate it and see what happens! It's not as gross if you are taking it in pill form, IMO.

[Seraphim]

I wanted to bank blood for my son. But unfortunately during my operation directly after my son was born my placenta tore in half.

[mhowe]

I totally understand keeping it as a stem cell research opportunity...but eating it???? YUK +10x

[annie24]

Eewwwww no thanks. That's medical waste, not food. Maybe better than hospital cafeteria food, but I would never eat it, no. Yuck.

[Lonewing]

Instead of having fish, chicken or rice and vegetables for lunch/dinner that day, we had placenta. It's hard to remember precisely what parts were what; some were tough, some were soft; if you look at a cross section, it perhaps makes sense, whereas the part closest to the uterus is like liver, highly enriched, and the part closest to the infant is more akin to a tough organ like the heart.

 

Seasoning has a large degree to do with final flavor.

 

It's a once in a lifetime experience on a once in a lifetime day.

 

 

 

I've never encountered anyone who takes their beef steak or their pork chop or their chicken and then encapsulate it in order to eat it...and you're looking at two POUNDS of organ meat to encapsulate.

 

Right after a delivery it is an ideal food source, whereas it's high in all the protein and minerals your body needs to recover from birthing. One or two meals from it for yourself means your body nutrients it needs, Plus it also has the nutrients it needs for you baby if you're also breastfeeding [more "giving of yourself to another being," in a sense]. growing up, the day was essentially shared with the whole family, from start to finish. I never had to ask the "where do babies come from?" and neither did my brothers. The whole experience, it never leaves you. I don't know if I'll repeat the tradition with my own kids, seeing as how I'm still more concerned with finding someone suitable to share kids with.

 

It's an acquired taste and further a once in a lifetime thing - I don't think it's something you eat like fillet mignon or caviar, more like...fruitcake during the holidays, or liver if your parents were ever cruel enough to serve it for dinner - mine weren't! You eat it for the nutritional value and the experience alone; one serving or so is usually enough.

 

On this day you share because everyone else does the work for you...so you can stay focused on new number one!

[Silverbirch]

I wonder if Sheila Kitzinger, the British anthropologist wrote anything about it. I read several of her books when my son was young - told about them by other mothers, then I re-read a lot of it when I was studying. She writes a lot about obstetrics and child-rearing in other countries - and some of their practices are so much better than Western practice, I think anyway.

[mhowe]

SB---I consider you a learned woman, but eating your own childs plecenta???? Yak and a half!!

[Silverbirch]

Hi M,

Didn't say anywhere here I would eat it myself, but I am open-minded. I just googled Sheila Kitzinger and placentas, and it only refers to planting them under a tree. There are other references there to eating placenta as a form of hormone replacement therapy. The article gives a woman's description of the taste of placenta.

 

I thought this article from way back - 1994 - was interesting. It talks about how British women's placentas were routinely, without the mothers knowledge sent to France to be used in drug manufacture. Some women were horrified by that. Personally, I am not against that practice, though I think it should have happened with people's consent. I am much more against the use of horses and the conditions they are forced to live in to supply hormones for use in pharmaceutical preparations. At least no person or animal has suffered.

 

link removed

[mhowe]

I vaguely remember female horse urine being used for some medical procedure. I don't think a mare ever cared where her piss went.

 

Horses, whom I adore, have been used in racing, in competition and in many other avenues...as have dogs.

I love them both.

[Silverbirch]

M, will see if I can find a link, but I read a book here called: "They Shoot Horses Don't They", and I'm certain that there were horses, maybe it was in Australia were mares were kept continually in foal and/or nursing so that they would produce certain hormones for use in pharmaceuticals. They were kept in stalls and would rarely, maybe never or for a long time been in a paddock. I'm quite certain they were used in the manufacture of hormone replacement therapy.

 

At least in the past, placenta has been used in cosmetics, especially skin and hair products, but this might be illegal now in a lot of places except for Japan. See if I can find the link about horses.

[Silverbirch]

Here's the link, and the article points out that there are cruelty-free alternatives.

 

Over the years, I've changed my views on horseracing. I wouldn't mind participating in racing some trainers though. A few whips on their asses might be quite fun.

 

link removed

[oitnb]

M, will see if I can find a link, but I read a book here called: "They Shoot Horses Don't They", and I'm certain that there were horses, maybe it was in Australia were mares were kept continually in foal and/or nursing so that they would produce certain hormones for use in pharmaceuticals. They were kept in stalls and would rarely, maybe never or for a long time been in a paddock. I'm quite certain they were used in the manufacture of hormone replacement therapy.

 

At least in the past, placenta has been used in cosmetics, especially skin and hair products, but this might be illegal now in a lot of places except for Japan. See if I can find the link about horses.

 

that makes me so sad. I'm a big animal lover. I really need to make the switch to using cruelty free beauty products and go vegetarian, I've just been so lazy about it. I'd donate my placenta in a second towards pharmaceutical use if I knew it took the place of a horse being abused.

[petite]

One of my friends has it made into pill form and both she and her husband took them. Personally, it does not appeal to me.