WHO Reproductive Health Library: “Methods of delivery of the placenta during caesarean section”. Brumfield had heard stories from friends and family about a way to minimize the stress and emotional impact of the postpartum period: eating her placenta, the vascular organ that nourishes and protects the fetus during pregnancy and is expelled from the body after birth. The women swore by the results. They said their milk supply had improved and their energy had increased. The lows caused by the drop in hormone levels didn`t feel as overwhelming, they explained. It is not advisable to eat your own placenta (in any form) as there is little evidence to consistently support its safety. This is not an area that has been extensively researched by the medical community. Ms Daly: Yes. No, I think that is clear. And then you mentioned that the other studies were all done on animals, and wasn`t there a study in mice where you saw a health benefit of mice ingesting the placenta? Dr. Clark: I would say first of all that it is up to the woman to choose what she does with her body, as a reproductive psychiatrist who frequently advises my patients on what is best for their treatment during pregnancy or after childbirth, what we often talk about is the balance between risks and benefits. and what they want to do for themselves. But what I recommend to my patients who are thinking about placentophagy is that in reality, we have no evidence to support the promoters` claim, nor any evidence to shed light on the risks.
And so my concern for them would be that it`s uncharted territory. We don`t know what the end result of eating the placenta might be, but more importantly, I don`t want them to give up evidence-based treatment. So if they have postpartum depression, I encourage them to use evidence-based treatment safely, and if they choose placentophagy, then that`s their choice, but don`t give up on the evidence-based treatments that we have. Dr. Clark: So part of what we understand about animals that eat their placenta is that they protect themselves and their newborns from predators because the smell of postbirth is such that they eat their placenta for that reason. It`s possible that it also gives them other benefits, such as pain relief and maybe even some nutrients, but what we do know about animals is that they eat it raw and eat it in its entirety right after birth. And that`s not what human mothers practicing placentophagy do when they mostly encapsulate it and don`t eat it raw. You don`t eat it in an environment, and it`s not good in the delivery room.
Placental encapsulation can be done by the mother or family, but people are more likely to turn to services that do it for them. While there are several training programs on placenta encapsulation, it is not a regulated practice or industry. It is important to consider the risks associated with your placenta being “treated” by a service that does the same for other women, including cross-contamination. Li Shizhen`s Compendium of Materia Medica or Bencao gangmu, first published in 1596, is a Chinese pharmacopoeia and the most famous book in the Chinese tradition of pharmacognosy or the study of medicinal plants. It appears on the websites of placenta service providers and on standard reference pages for practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine, a thousand-year-old medical system with a growing global reach. A: It`s running the ladder. Some people consume it raw in a smoothie. Others cook it and put it in lasagna and stews. Still others turn it into capsules that they can burst during the postpartum period. This complex process involves steaming the placenta, dehydrating it and then grinding it into powder before filling it into 100 to 200 capsules.
The problem, of course, is that there is no standardized process for preparing a placenta for human consumption. Mishandling, as with any food substance, can pose a risk of disease. The placenta is a complicated organ that nourishes the growing fetus by exchanging nutrients and oxygen, and filtering waste through the umbilical cord. The most common placental preparation – the creation of a capsule – is made by steaming and dehydrating the placenta or treating the raw placenta. People have also been known to eat placenta raw, cooked, or in smoothies or liquid extracts. The rise of encapsulation technology, developed for the food industry and adopted by placental service providers in the early years, put an end to visceral experiments like Field`s. Women no longer have to treat their own placenta or expose themselves to its supposedly gut taste. Careful, pre-serving placental pills that look like vitamins can be prepared by anyone with access to a dehydrator, basic care, and online exercise videos. People who support the consumption of placenta say it can increase your energy and your amount of breast milk. They also say it can balance your hormones, reducing your chances of developing postpartum depression and insomnia. A: In some cultures, healers use the placenta to combat certain health problems.
But there is no scientific evidence that eating the placenta can resolve postpartum depression and promote recovery. Instead, women may jump on the bandwagon of placenta use because someone they know or respect claims it`s “the best thing ever!” to remove annoying post-baby complaints like lack of energy, fatigue, and irritability. Proponents believe that the placenta is a rich source of nutrients and hormones, including the hormones oxytocin, prolactin and prostaglandin, which can help boost milk production and return the uterus to its pre-pregnancy state. While it is true that the placenta contains these hormones, it also contains iron, and studies show that there is probably not enough iron to reach therapeutic levels. Studies have never provided evidence that taking these hormones from placenta consumption has any health benefits. While eating your placenta isn`t the safest practice, there are countless things you can do to relieve postpartum problems. Babcock`s best tips: Don`t faint! The act of eating the placenta after birth, called placentophagy, is not just something animals do. So do human mothers, including tribal women and glamorous celebrities. You may be wondering if you should too. These preparations do not completely destroy infectious bacteria and viruses that the placenta may contain.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a warning against taking placental capsules because a newborn developed group B streptococci (group B streptococci) after the mother took placental pills with group B streptococci and breastfed her newborn. Breast milk was thought to be infected with group B streptococci that she had acquired after eating her infected placenta. Group B streptococci can cause serious illness in newborns. Placentophagy can be harmful to you and your baby. If you`re looking for ways to improve your postpartum health, talk to your doctor about proven alternatives. While some claim that placentophagy can prevent postpartum depression; reduce postpartum hemorrhage; improve mood, energy and milk supply; and providing important micronutrients, such as iron, there is no evidence that consuming the placenta provides health benefits. Q: What are the risks associated with using the placenta? Anyway, if you bring your placenta home and need to get rid of it later, don`t throw it away. Contact a hospital or medical waste company to ensure safe disposal. Scientific data on the potential benefits and risks of placentophagy is scarce, but some small studies suggest that nutrients found in cooked or encapsulated placental tissues are unlikely to be absorbed into the bloodstream at concentrations large enough to have significant health effects. The question of whether and how much reproductive hormones such as estrogen survive placental treatment has been little studied, but taking it after birth could have negative effects on milk production and increase the risk of blood clots.
Social scientists and doctors call the practice of consuming one`s own placentophagy placentaphy. Once confined to obscure corners of alternative medicine and sharper counterculture communities, it has been picked up by celebrities (Kourtney and Kim Kardashian, January Jones, Mayim Bialik, Alicia Silverstone, Chrissy Teigen) and embraced by the general public. Often the woman hires some sort of placental encapsulation service, usually performed by a midwife or doula, and that`s pretty much how it works. The placenta contains proteins and fats. But these nutrients can be found in a healthy diet. One case of an infant infected with group B streptococci, likely due to its mother`s consumption of encapsulated placenta, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), received national attention in 2017. But like many claims about ancient origins, the origins of placentophagy as a postpartum treatment are controversial. Sabine Wilms, author and translator of more than a dozen books on Chinese medicine, reviewed classical Chinese texts on gynecology and childbirth. She told me that “there is no written evidence that a woman consumes her own placenta after childbirth as the dominant traditional practice in China,” even when formulas containing dried human placenta have been prescribed for other conditions, as described in Li`s book. Eating your placenta after birth (placentophagy) can harm you and your baby. Some families choose to commemorate a birth and “honor” the placenta itself by burying it under a tree or creating art projects such as a placental impression. These are safer options for you and your baby, although state and local laws may restrict what you can do when it comes to nature.