In Bloom Doula Services

* heads up: pictures of placenta are included in this post. I would say TMI or “trigger warning,” but if you open this post I’m sure you can imagine what you’re in for.

So, I know what you’re thinking.. “how gross!?” Right? And I totally get that. I do. But the more I talk about eating my placenta the more normal and less gross it seems, so maybe once you finish reading this you’ll feel a little less freaked out.

The first time I’d ever heard of anyone eating their placenta I was a little grossed out too. I heard January Jones of Mad Men fame had eaten hers and my first thought was, “yuck! Why are people being so weird these days!” Then I learned that she actually had had it encapsulated, which is small potatoes compared to how I ended up eating mine. It really is all about what is normalized and what is stigmatized in our culture. I’m honestly not that grossed out by too much at all, but now that I am waist deep in motherhood, gross things fill a good portion of my daily life. Example A:

Let’s start off with what a placenta is. It is an organ that grows in the uterus during pregnancy that supports, feeds, and nourishes a fetus while they are in utero. They are really incredible and one thing few women talk about is that you have to birth that too. My midwife lightly tugged on Holden’s umbilical chord to see if it had detached from my uterine wall. Once you start skin to skin/breast feeding your body signals that it is no longer needed and it is released. Mine hadn’t done that yet, so we waited and finally 20 ish minutes later I pushed, and it kinda slid out. Here it is in all its glory! I plan on getting more photos of my next one.

My midwife asked if I wanted to see it, and in all of the excitement I don’t remember thinking too much about it, but I do remember asking my doula if it was a healthy placenta and she said “yes.” She had warned me and the fellow pregnant mommas in my child birthing classes that if we ate a bunch of junk, it would be apparent in our placenta, and I definitely had my share of french fries. The nurses carried it out to dispose of it, and she said “wait are we taking it?” I said keep it, and we put it in a cooler and it left with my doula to be prepped for eating.

Pregnancy and labor depletes you of so much. The loss of vitamins, iron, and blood after birth leaves your body in a vulnerable state. The first thing all mammal mothers do is eat their placenta. Humans are the only mammals that don’t. It helps replace those lost nutrients and balance hormone levels again. It has been thought to help your body heal, boost milk production, and reduce postpartum depression.

I have heard every argument against consuming placenta. People often say that is to fight off predators, which is true, it helps give their body a boost so they can leave the birth site. It helps them prepare to watch their young as their body has been majorly depleted. I think there is a method to their madness. We humans seem to forget that we are also mammals with similar reproductive systems to animals in the wild. We forget that our bodies are designed to handle intense things like pregnancy and birth and repair our bodies as needed. I don’t think God would give animals a secret weapon to heal and leave us humans high and dry.

There are a few different ways one can ingest their placenta. You can encapsulate it into a pill form where it is dehydrated and cooked, blended into a powder and put into capsules. It is debatable how helpful this method actually is because you are damaging the placenta when exposing it to heat.

You can also eat it raw, which is what I chose to do. My doula simply cut up my placenta into ice cube sized chunks and we froze them (seen below). I’d pull out a chunk or two and put it in my blender with my prenatal vitamin, probiotics, alfalfa, and sometimes iron or a lactation supplement and mix them with fruit, ice cream, peanut butter, or whatever sounded good. I’d have a smoothie or milk shake everyday and never tasted placenta once. I never had trouble getting it down or swallowing it, although I did taste my prenatal vitamin.I decided to opt for a raw smoothie route over the incapsulated placenta because I’d heard you may burp up a placenta taste with the capsules. Also the more you do to process it the less potent it will be, so an encapsulated placenta is less beneficial than a raw one.

The benefits are undeniably obvious to me, but that’s the thing; everything we know about placenta is anecdotal because there are literally no scientific studies to site proving or disproving the benefits. The first thing anyone says when trying to dissuade a woman from eating their placenta is that “there is no research to prove the benefits!” That is true… kinda. I mean we can see clear scientific benefits for every other mammal to do so, are human radically different? I don’t think so.

I also learned a thing or two through my statistics and research classes that I took in college. There is a reason why there aren’t large studies being done about the benefits (or lack there of) of consuming one’s placenta. That is because studies are expensive. It would be statistically hard to find enough subjects willing to eat their placentas who could participate in a long term study because there are so many different variables. I took stats (multiple times :/) in college, and was undeniably terrible at it, but I did learn one thing: it isn’t necessarily easy to get reliable data. The sample size would have to be so large and there would need to be funding. There in lies the problem. Placentas are free! To me at least; I made mine. The hospital can’t charge me for me own placenta. Scientists, pharmaceutical companies and doctors can’t profit from my placenta, but they can profit from depression medication, postpartum care, formula and various medical interventions. Therefore, there is no incentive when it comes to research about eating placentas. There is no profit, so why invest time money and resources into it.

Call me a sceptic, a cynic, a conspiracy theorist, whatever. It is no secret that the medical community profits off of medical problems, and if you ever take a look at your outrageous itemized hospital bills for labor and delivery stays, it is ridiculous what you are charged for even the smallest things, like ibuprofen.

Like I said it is all anecdotal. You can only hear the testimony of women who have done it, so here is mine.

I started my placenta smoothies at 3 days postpartum. My milk came in at 5 days postpartum and I have never had an issue with my milk ever. In fact I had over supply, which allowed me to quickly build up a frozen stash of milk and also donate milk to Mother’s Milk Bank. Over supply comes with its own set of obstacles, but you won’t hear me complaining.

I also stopped bleeding at about 2 1/2 weeks postpartum, which is considerably fast. I didn’t have any issues with postpartum depression, and feel confident that even if all of the benefits weren’t actually due to eating my placenta, it sure didn’t do me any harm.

The other popular argument that I have heard against eating placenta is that it could get contaminated and cause infection. That is true, but only if handled improperly, or if the placenta is infected prior to the delivery. There is always a story of someone who (usually encapsulated her placenta) and got a bacterial infection from it. The infection is not from the placenta, but from some type of error while preparing it. That risk is cut out almost entirely when eating frozen placenta in your morning smoothie like I did. If you are GBS+, then your placenta is unusable. I think there are much more questionable things that women are regularly consuming and putting into their bodies. Like synthetic hormones, such as birth control for years, and synthetic hormones, like pitocin throughout their labor. Most women don’t bat an eye at the thought of that, but write off eating placenta based on the ick factor. But I know where my placenta came from. I know how it was processed, and that’s something that can’t be said for much of the food I (and much of America) eat on a daily basis. 

If eating your placenta is simply just not for you there is absolutely no judgement here on my part. I get that it’s a little “weird,” or out there, but that’s just because it is seen as taboo. I’ve been in several lively debates with moms on Facebook groups, who seem to have a very strong opinion about, and deep seeded issue with, other moms eating their placenta even though it has absolutely nothing to do with them at all. They even compared it to eating your own feces, claiming that just because animals do it doesn’t make it right, and that they also “eat their own shit, so…” The logic there is flawed on many levels as animals do not normally eat their own waste, and if they do it’s because of a problem.

Also a placenta and feces are not even comparable. The insinuation that they are is almost offensive to me. One is waste that our bodies expel because there is nothing left in it for us. The placenta, on the other hand, is created to support the life in your body. It’s rich with nutrients.

I get that eating placenta is not for everyone, but that’s the beauty of being informed and knowledgeable people when it comes to motherhood. We can all make the choices that best fit our family and circumstances. We can also do that without judgement and criticism because we can respect the differences that help us each be the mothers we need to be. The entire motivation behind this post is that I had a great experience with eating my placenta, and I am a believer that it had  a little something to do with my great milk supply, and quick recovery time. Was postpartum a breeze? Absolutely not, but why not share what worked for me that can possibly work for other new moms too?

I’d say if you’re on the fence about it, go for it, and if you feel terrible or don’t like it- then stop. It is worth the try, and most doulas will be happy to assist you in the prep. I plan on eating my placenta again after the birth of my second son. I’ll be happy to report any differences concerning my postpartum recovery and breastfeeding journey. I’m honestly afraid to not eat my placenta, and end up feeling worse or struggling with my milk supply. All I can do is try it and see how it works for me, but I have a feeling the placenta will come through!