So it has come to my attention that many people think I am crazy because I want to encapsulate my placenta. I wonder why? Lol. Perhaps the terminology "eat my placenta" is what turns people off. I imagine that your first impression is to picture me chewing on mouthfuls of raw placenta. Ya... that's pretty gross. But that is not that case. I am not going to cook it like a steak, or grind it up into a meatloaf, or make stew. I am vegetarian after all. But I am going to dehydrate it, grind it into a powder and put the powder into gelatin capsules so that I can take them orally as I would a vitamin. Is that so gross? The process, maybe. But the final product is nothing more than a vitamin. And a powerful one at that. So with that being said, I've decided to devote this post to the topic in hopes that I can shed some light onto the idea behind my choosing to do so.
When I first heard the idea of ingesting the placenta I was intrigued. Although weird, I wasn't going to bash the idea without first looking into it. There is a growing trend of ingesting the placenta to help with the mother's postpartum recovery and beyond. Besides being nutritious, the placenta contains many vitamins, minerals & hormones that help a mother's body to adequately recover from pregnancy and childbirth. In addition to that recovery, ingesting the placenta also (but is not limited to):
- reducing the chances/symptoms of postpartum depression
- reducing postpartum bleeding & aids the uterus in returning to it's original state
- reducing insomnia/sleep disorders
- increasing milk production
- increasing energy
Encapsulation is especially beneficial. Not only is it probably the method most easy to stomach, the dehydration process actually preserves the placenta so that you can benefit from it for weeks, months, or years by keeping the capsules refrigerated or frozen. Any time you feel run down, tired or emotionally fragile you can use the capsules as a 'pick me up'. Believe it or not, they can even go as far as menopause when the time comes and aide in the balance of hormones. Given that the placenta's hormonal make-up is unique to the mother, what better hormones to use during menopause than your very own?
The placenta is not something that is usually addressed during pregnancy unless there is a problem with it, so it makes sense that your initial reaction would be one of sheer disgust. With my first pregnancy the hospital actually asked me what I wanted to do with my placenta, which is rare. Often the placenta is just taken away and treated as medical waste and you never even hear or think about it. But what if, for instance, you eliminate the process of encapsulating it yourself (although this is not the case for me) and it was returned to you when you left the hospital already in a pill format that the doctor prescribed as part of your postpartum recovery? Would you think that was gross? What if it was routinely discussed during pregnancy and it's benefits truly, fully understood? Would that make it normal? If the placenta was your responsibility and you needed to make a decision based on informed knowledge, what was to be done with it, it might not be so strange. Unfortunately, I'm sure that a very large percentage of women who give birth in a hospital don't even know what the placenta looks like. But if you were offered the information on it's role both in utero & postpartum, perhaps your opinion would be different. After all, it is a vital organ in the generation of new life. It's what nourishes your baby throughout your pregnancy, passing oxygen and nutrients to your baby, as well as secreting important hormones. And it's benefits don't end with childbirth. Those benefits can be preserved and used for years to come. Many cultures honor the placenta. It is becoming increasingly popular to plant the placenta in the ground with a tree growing over top. So why not go the next level and explore the idea of placenta ingestion? It has been a part of Chinese medicine for centuries. In our "western" culture/society it's just new. Unexplored. Different. And the idea of doing it yourself may turn you off. But the number of encapsulating specialists is growing rapidly, eliminating the "nasty" process of doing it yourself. Go ahead and Google it. You'd be surprised at how much information there is and just how many people are in fact, eating their placenta.
SOURCES:
http://placentabenefits.info/
http://www.cafemom.com/journals/read/1577334/Placenta_Encapsulation_Instructions_w_Pictures
When I first heard the idea of ingesting the placenta I was intrigued. Although weird, I wasn't going to bash the idea without first looking into it. There is a growing trend of ingesting the placenta to help with the mother's postpartum recovery and beyond. Besides being nutritious, the placenta contains many vitamins, minerals & hormones that help a mother's body to adequately recover from pregnancy and childbirth. In addition to that recovery, ingesting the placenta also (but is not limited to):
- reducing the chances/symptoms of postpartum depression
- reducing postpartum bleeding & aids the uterus in returning to it's original state
- reducing insomnia/sleep disorders
- increasing milk production
- increasing energy
Encapsulation is especially beneficial. Not only is it probably the method most easy to stomach, the dehydration process actually preserves the placenta so that you can benefit from it for weeks, months, or years by keeping the capsules refrigerated or frozen. Any time you feel run down, tired or emotionally fragile you can use the capsules as a 'pick me up'. Believe it or not, they can even go as far as menopause when the time comes and aide in the balance of hormones. Given that the placenta's hormonal make-up is unique to the mother, what better hormones to use during menopause than your very own?
The placenta is not something that is usually addressed during pregnancy unless there is a problem with it, so it makes sense that your initial reaction would be one of sheer disgust. With my first pregnancy the hospital actually asked me what I wanted to do with my placenta, which is rare. Often the placenta is just taken away and treated as medical waste and you never even hear or think about it. But what if, for instance, you eliminate the process of encapsulating it yourself (although this is not the case for me) and it was returned to you when you left the hospital already in a pill format that the doctor prescribed as part of your postpartum recovery? Would you think that was gross? What if it was routinely discussed during pregnancy and it's benefits truly, fully understood? Would that make it normal? If the placenta was your responsibility and you needed to make a decision based on informed knowledge, what was to be done with it, it might not be so strange. Unfortunately, I'm sure that a very large percentage of women who give birth in a hospital don't even know what the placenta looks like. But if you were offered the information on it's role both in utero & postpartum, perhaps your opinion would be different. After all, it is a vital organ in the generation of new life. It's what nourishes your baby throughout your pregnancy, passing oxygen and nutrients to your baby, as well as secreting important hormones. And it's benefits don't end with childbirth. Those benefits can be preserved and used for years to come. Many cultures honor the placenta. It is becoming increasingly popular to plant the placenta in the ground with a tree growing over top. So why not go the next level and explore the idea of placenta ingestion? It has been a part of Chinese medicine for centuries. In our "western" culture/society it's just new. Unexplored. Different. And the idea of doing it yourself may turn you off. But the number of encapsulating specialists is growing rapidly, eliminating the "nasty" process of doing it yourself. Go ahead and Google it. You'd be surprised at how much information there is and just how many people are in fact, eating their placenta.
SOURCES:
http://placentabenefits.info/
http://www.cafemom.com/journals/read/1577334/Placenta_Encapsulation_Instructions_w_Pictures
No comments:
Post a Comment