Placenta Encapsulation
The idea of "What to do with the placenta" rarely comes up for most parents while preparing for baby. If you're planning a birth center or home birth, your midwife might ask but rarely will an OB bring it up (Note: You can get your placenta from a hospital birth as well!)... but who would ever think of ingesting it? Right?
Mothers have been consuming their placentas since the beginning of time. All mammals, even herbivores, eat their placentas and contemporary women are looking at this practice with new eyes, returning to a ritual that is older than human memory. Consuming the placenta returns valuable nutrients and life force to the mother. Birth can sometimes leave a woman feeling drained physically and emotionally, which are risk factors for baby blues and postpartum depression. Consuming the placenta is one way to reduce those risks to promote a joyful postpartum.
Some mothers choose to eat the placenta. Others choose to swallow it as a pill. Placenta encapsulation is the process of dehydrating and encapsulating the placenta after birth for mothers to consume as dietary supplements.
Benefits:
Your baby's placenta, contained in capsule form, is believed to:
- Balance your system and avoid the "Baby Blues"
- Replenish depleted iron and give you more energy
- Lessen bleeding postnatal
- Increase milk production
- Help you have a happier postpartum period
- Hasten the return of uterus to pre-pregnancy state
- Be helpful during menopause
Ingredients
The known ingredients that give placenta its healing properties are:
- Gonadotrophin: The precursor to estrogen, progesterone and testosterone.
- Prolactin: Main hormone to produce milk.
- Oxytocin: For pain and bonding, produced during breastfeeding to facilitate bonding of mother and infant.
- Thyroid stimulating hormone: Boosts energy and helps recovery from stressful events.
- Cortisone: Combats stress and unlocks energy stores.
- Interferon: Stimulates the immune system to protect against infections.
- Prostaglandins: Anti-inflammatory.
- Hemoglobin: Replenishes iron deficiency and anemia.
- Urokinase inhibiting factor and factor XIII: Stops bleeding and enhances wound healing.
- Urokinase inhibiting factor and factor XIII: Stops bleeding and enhances wound healing.
- Gammaglobulin: Immune booster that helps protect against postpartum infections.
Information regarding fees for Placenta Encapsulation can be found here.
