Hi everybody.
I'm Melissa.
Welcome back to CloudMom.com.
So the practice of eating the placenta or so-called placentophagy, kinda sounds like
photography but it's not and if you know how to pronounce it please let me know because
I'm having trouble with it, has gained a lot of attention of late especially since celebrities,
such as January Jones and Kim Kardashian have publicly stated their intention to eat their
baby's placenta.
So the question is, is this something that you should consider doing and if so, why?
Well, the argument really is that many mammals eat the placenta, or the after birth as it's
called, because it's a very vitamin and mineral rich resource.
So this tissue holds all the vitamin and minerals that are going to the baby that will allow
the baby to grow from being a small fetus to a healthy baby.
These include vitamins B6 and B12, progesterone, estrogen, things like these that are very
healthy and the argument is that humans are among the only mammals who don't do this.
And that it's a very healthy way to make sure that a postpartum woman has a lot of iron
and all these good vitamins and nutrients, and some people argue that it helps with breast
milk production and others say that it can help with postpartum depression.
Okay, so I did read up a lot about this and I actually talked to my sister who's a high-risk
OB-GYN.
She works at Columbia University and here's the rub on this whole thing.
There actually have been no clinical trials that have shown positively that there's any
health benefit whatsoever to eating the placenta.
There have been a few very small studies that didn't use control groups or proper scientific
methods that have shown some increases in breast milk supply and let me just check this
because I wanna make sure I get this right; and pain relief and this latter pain relief
only in rats, but really this is not something that has been well studied.
So it is really up in the air as to whether or not there are legitimate health benefits.
So talk to your doctor and make a decision for yourself.
You might decide that just because the prevailing medical community doesn't endorse this doesn't
mean that you don't think it's a safe and healthy thing for you to do.
So all that being said, if you are interested in doing this, a couple of tips on how to
go about it.
First of all, you have to plan for this.
I wouldn't just plan on having my baby and think that the hospital's gonna be prepared
to properly deal with the placenta post the baby's birth.
This is something you have to really work at in advance, figure out who's going to be
taking the placenta, storing it properly, freezing it or whatever the procedure will
be.
Some people will actually freeze it as tissue and use it in foods.
Others will have it dried and made into capsules that you can take on a daily basis and there
are midwives that are licensed to do this and other healthcare professionals, but you
have to work this all out in advance.
And so make sure you get that whole thing planned and squared away before you have your
baby.
A and second, make sure the people doing this are licensed professionals that really know
what they're doing because you don't wanna take any risk of infection or bacteria or
anything like that.
And third, and I actually read this in a very helpful piece by Heidi Markoff on What to
Expect, it's an absolutely great site, make sure that you don't feel sick after taking
these capsules because that could mean that there's been some sort of infection or bacteria
in the tissue and that, of course, you wanna avoid.
And finally, if you feel like you're having any symptoms of postpartum depression, contact
your doctor immediately because it's a very serious thing that you have to take care of.
So anyway, those are just some guidelines.
If anybody has done this, please weigh in.
What has your experience been like?
I did not do this.
Did you think that it helped you with breast feeding, with postpartum depression?
Why did you choose to do it?
What was your basis for your decision?
I'd love to hear your thoughts on CloudMom.com, so please comment on my site and thank you
so much for watching.