Yum Placenta! Or, are you really gonna eat that?

Yes, that is my placenta.  Or, rather, it is my son's placenta.  And yes, some people will slice and dice this thing and eat it.  Raw.  Perhaps in a smoothie.  Perhaps sauteed in a stir-fry. 

And here I thought I was all hippie-crunchy for just wanting to bury my oldest's placenta under a tree three years ago.  Nope, apparently I've spent the last three years getting even weirder.  This time around I wanted to eat it.  And I did. 

Or more accurately, I still am eating it...since I have some pills left.  No, no raw placenta injesting for me.  I just couldn't do it this way.  I don't really even like rare steak.  I'm a well-done meat eater only and don't like my meat to resemble meat.  It must be from those years of being vegetarian.  No way was I going to eat that thing as is.  

So I had it freeze dried and encapsulated.  A midwife picked up my fresh placenta (that we stored in the fridge for a few hours before she arrived) and then dropped off a bottle of placenta pills a couple days later along with that dried up umbilical cord that she shaped into a heart.  I'm not sure if that heart umbilical cord is beautiful or just weird.  I'm not exactly sure what to do with it.  Do I keep this?  Is this baby book fodder?  Perhaps I should bury it.  All I know is that she said to make sure I keep it away from dogs or cats because they'll turn it into a chew toy. 

Anyway, these pills (Mr Woodmouse calls them my "placenta helper pills") are supposed to ward off postpartum depression.  Do I notice a difference?  You bet I do.  About a half hour after popping a few things seem less cloudy.  Placebo?  Maybe.  But who cares.  If it works, it works and I didn't even have to eat the darn thing raw.     

(and I'm now giggling that I get to put this in the "food stuff & cooking" category)

Comments

[Mandy]

I thought my kid would be the only one with a placenta photo in her baby album!

[shawn]

you rock! i love it!

[Sarah]

I feel like such a looser for just taking the antidepressants in lieu of eating the placenta. Maybe next time 'round. ;)

[Annie]

I wish I'd gotten a photo of my placenta, but things were kind of hectic after the birth and we didn't get a chance. But my midwife did dry my placenta for me and we've encapsulated it as well. It is really great for post-partum blood loss too, so a great thing for mom's who experience a lot of bleeding. It helps rebuild your blood supply.

[Jacqueline]

Oh amber thanks for sharing this with us! I have always wonder about placenta and what i should do with it in the future when i have a baby of my own! :) I aodre that dried up umbilical cord...so meaningful! Thanks so much for sharing this with us! Have a lovely merry happy day and love to yoU!

[Hip Mountain Mama]

I am so glad I read this post! What an amazing thing to do! And i do love that heart umbilical cord...what to do with it? I'm sure you will do what you feel is right (but I do think it is really cool)!

[Jenn]

We did placenta prints last time and they turned out sooo neat! The placenta when laid on heavy-duty watercolor paper looks just like a tree when you pull the cord down.

I have done belly masks and saved the cord before and I have always buried our placentas under trees...never have I eaten placenta and never would I. Encapsulated, maybe...but I have no idea how I would get that done as we do unassisted births.

You are so funny, by the way, I am always giggling when reading your entries! :)

[AmberS]

I am totally laughing at your hippie-crunchy bar moving. I have yet to consume placenta, but I definitely feel that my perspective is constantly changing. These days I regularly do things that would have set off my 'kooky' alarm bells a few years ago.

And I'm glad the placenta is helping. :)

[Allison]

Cripes, talk about learning something every day. When I went to help out my sister after a disastrous home birth (not a judgement on home births, it's just the way it worked out) she did ask me to go down to her freezer and hide the placenta before my Mom arrived.

Thank goodeness they do it in pill form. Childbirth is beautiful and everything, but that first photo just makes me think 'with fava beans and a nice chianti'. :)

[Summer]

Wow, that is hard core. I thought about getting it dried into pills but couldn't anyone to do it for me, so it got buried out back.

Just found your blog and I'm subscribing. Anyone who shares their placenta is worth reading. :)

[leslie]

that is so wierd