Why I Ate My Placenta

I’ll give you a minute to scrunch up your face and say “ewwww” out loud if you have to.  Go ahead – get it out of your system. 

 

While I was pregnant I actually craved it. Some women crave pickles and ice cream. For me, the idea of home grown, free range placenta made my mouth water. Which was funny because I didn’t crave any meat throughout the entire pregnancy. In fact, I haven’t eaten any red meat in well over a decade. My iron levels during pregnancy were completely normal and I was loving all the fruit and veggies my body was craving.

 

As the autumn days began to get cooler, the thought of a nice placenta chili or stew almost made me hangry (an angry kind of hunger). I couldn’t wait to get my hands on my babies first womb mate and cook it up, but after some deliberation on how to get the most out of my placenta, and advice from a placenta eating support group on Facebook, I decided to get it encapsulated. 

 

It was a fascinating process done in my kitchen by a local doula/nurse and my mom. My mom even recorded it for me so I could watch later because I was still in the hospital. Placenta is best prepared fresh within a couple of days after delivery.  My placenta ended up having a succenturiate lobe, or an accessory lobe, which the doula turned into a tincture. She also offered to make a placenta print for me which I declined. That just sounded weird. I kind of wish I had done it now with the extra lobe though.

 

The process wasn’t like anything I had envisioned it to be. My placenta was steamed with ginger, fresh lemons, and cayenne pepper. I’m getting hungry again just thinking about it. Then it was thinly sliced, dehydrated, and crushed into powder before being put into almost 100 starch capsules. 

 

I’ve nearly reached the end of my placenta pills and I wish I had more. I am coveting the remaining few. What a marvel those little pills have been. They brought up my iron levels, which were very low after all the blood loss from my emergency c-section.  I’ve had zero breastfeeding problems, and they have kept the baby blues at bay – which were the main reasons why I originally was open to the idea of eating my placenta. I was so worried I’d experience postpartum depression because I’m already sensitive to depression. I didn’t get depressed – I was able to enjoy and love every moment of being a new mother.

 

That was so precious to me.

 

I stopped taking the pills because my milk supply was perfect and after a couple of weeks I noticed my mood changing. Postpartum was leaking in like a hole in a shoe after a rain. My husband noticed it too. I thought I was loosing my mind, it was so dark and I was terrified. I took one of my placenta pills and the next day I was myself again.

 

There is no official research that placenta pills help against postpartum depression but research be damned that was not a placebo effect.  My body created two miracles for me the day I gave birth. My baby and my placenta.  

 

Want to learn more about how to prepare your placenta?  Check out Full Circle Placenta at IPPA Training