If you ate your placenta

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To actually answer the question for you:
We encapsulated my placenta ourselves at home after birth with a $60 dehydrator, an old blender, and some empty pill capsules from Amazon. Yes, it smelled kind of funny, and yes, there is a weird burp-taste afterwards similar to fish burp from fish oil pills. I found that if I took the pills really fast with a cup of apple cider or strong flavored drink, they went down much easier and the "placenta-taste" was mostly in my mind. This is my first child, so I don't know if things would have gone differently otherwise or not, but my postpartum period was very smooth, even though I had feared postpartum depression. I still was weepy, but it was always just from being tired. It was never more than a mild case of the baby blues from being exhausted and nursing all day. I had read that people felt they had more energy when they took the pills, but I found that they helped me get much better rest (i took my most awesome naps the days that I took the pills) thus having more energy. And I'm not sure if it helped with postpartum bleeding as I had read it would. I bled for a full six weeks, though it never was worse than the heaviest day of my normal period. I took a few again at about 3 months postpartum because I was really feeling exhausted and down (apparently there's another hormonal shift at this time) and now I have the rest of the jar in the back of my fridge. I've heard that along with saving them for menopause, they can be really helpful during your menstrual cycle.

PP, you're BRAVE! I would never be able to do this myself...

Yup, my doc said that to save some to take right before my period starts so the BM supply won't drop. I remember going from 4oz to 1oz the days before my period when I pumped.

Thanks for sharing your experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, I'm so sorry you went through PPD. I did too and I know what you are talking about when you talk about that feeling of fright of hurting your own child. My concern is that the placenta might not work, or might work too late/too early/not strong enough. Is there a plan if it's not enough? I'm not asking you to share it, but I hope so. Especially since you now have a toddler. I hope you'll have people helping you. Good luck, OP.

Thanks a lot for your concern, PP. The play is laid out and I wont' make the same mistakes again My doc is familiar with my history and very comfortable with the approach I chose. We'll have more help this time around and hopefully this time things will go smoothly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But if your body delivers it whole, why would it be "natural" to ingest it? The body is getting rid of it. It's not like we eat our menstrual blood to gain strength or whatever... I can't believe a physician would be amenable to thus- maybe they're just humoring you?

If you're anemia, why don't you take iron pills or eat more red meat or spinach?

I want to believe you're asking an honest question so I'll respond with the best of my knowledge...

The placenta is an organ that develops during the pregnancy. It takes so much from your own body - look at how our hair, nails, skin, etc react because of all the nutrients being shifted around between mom and baby... It produces all sorts of hormones - it's like a huge gland producing hormones and filtering nutrients/waste to keep the baby alive while it can't do it on its own.

I've been anemic for several years and the battle to find the reason why is not over yet. I have done all the diets you can think of, I've ingested all sorts of iron pills you can see in the market and nothing has helped. Doctors can't see what's wrong with me. I honestly don't see the harm in this "natural" option.

I'd love to read more about people who have tried it and what they did to help making easy to ingest. There's no way I'll eat it raw or cook it with a meal, though

OK, this is a comment related to the anemia thing, not the placenta thing. If you have unexplained anemia, you may benefit from my story. I had low blood iron for years since my teenage years, but no amount of iron pills ever helped. It wasn't until I did a detailed blood work-up that I was diagnosed with thalassemia minor, which explained both anemia and the reason why iron pills don't help. Give it a try and see if you have that too. All I have to do now is take folic acid.

I can't believe I actually found something useful in this thread. Thank you PP. I had the same issue and although I'm done having kids, I will try the Folic acid.

[Anonymous]

Eh, tastes like chicken.

[Anonymous]

There are actually women who eat their placentas???? Wow, I thought I was pretty crunchy, but this is disgusting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

OP here to 17:42.

What makes you believe I'm looking into eating my placenta INSTEAD of using other approaches? It's kinda scary that a physician has such poor reading comprehension skills. I never said I would dismiss other sources of help if I needed. And last but not least, I never said I felt like hurting my baby. I was afraid of droping her never throwing her that's why I took those extreme precautions. Just a few days after I delivered her our neighbor upstairs fell off the balcony after having a seizure and died. It added up to my anxiety that's why I acted that way. Anyway, I don't get why you're coming from. I got over the PPD with therapy, going to support groups, fixed my supply with supplements and changing my pumping routine and I'm pretty happy with they way I handeled myself.

My doctor is not saying eating my placenta will cure anything. It's only his suggestion to help to diminish or avoid complications that MIGHT arise. Did you completely miss the part where I stated I've done all the screenings doctors suggested, I've been taking all supplements known, did all kinds of diets?

I trully hope you're more attentive to your patients and actually listen to what they say IRL.

I hope that eating your placenta makes you less mean and angry. It is clear that 17:42 was trying to be helpful; there is no need to respond this way.

Agreed - I don't have opinions either way on placenta consumption, but I have opinions on nasty, hostile people who are off their rocker. OP, you aren't "misunderstood" like one PP suggested. You are mean. You keep coming back and saying really mean things; no one can be misunderstood THAT many times.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ALSO! This should be posted in the expectant mom forum...

Do you mind explaining why? Expectant moms are known for eating their placentas?

Holy crap. Do you really need this spelled out for you? Who but an expectant mother has ready access to a placenta in the near future?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ALSO! This should be posted in the expectant mom forum...

Do you mind explaining why? Expectant moms are known for eating their placentas?

Holy crap. Do you really need this spelled out for you? Who but an expectant mother has ready access to a placenta in the near future?

You didn't read the OP, did you? Read again the original question and see if your suggestion really makes sense.

[Anonymous]

17:24 again - the physician who told you to fortify yourself against ppd and get another consult on your anemia... i will temporarily ignore your venom and try to give you some advice i hope helps you through this time...

first, another hematology consult is not a waste. a good friend of mine, a physician, no less, had SIX miscarriages and thought she had had the most thorough work up ever with multiple practices. while in infertility treatments, her Drs realized she had not been tested for the MTHFR gene - a gene that promotes clotting and is well known to cause miscarriages. once it was recognized, she was put on blood thinners and went on to have 2 healthy pregnancies and babies. Like the poster above who found out she had a thallesemia, you, too, may have a GENETIC issue that is causing a low blood count, and depending on your age or what hematology practice you are with, they may not have thought to check you for genetic causes of anemia - perhaps they are looking for nutritional causes or focusing on your pregnancy right now or, if you're a bit older, and this seems to ave come out nowhere, they doubt that its genetic and has been present your whole life. but there are many conditions that "bloom" in pregnancy and post-partum and anemia is certainly one of them.

second, i'm glad you have a plan for your ppd. if you need recommendations on ppd therapists, look into Georgetown's Women and fertility group - they do amazing work with post-partum women. i should know; i was treated by them.

third, your posts raise quite a few red flags - i think you should share this thread with your therapist (i am hoping you are already seeing her/him)... you state you were concerned about dropping your baby, but then locked the balcony door and put a bookshelf in front of it - that indicates to me that it was more than a fear of accidental dropping, but that you had to put barriers in your way b/c you *might* have felt you would purposely drop her - no judgment at all - just a note that your PPd was probably more severe than you recollect.

you also react quite angrily - noting the ppd, you said something like "where were all of you when i was crying in my room?" - well, this is an anonymous forum; you should not count on us for physical immediate support. this is a place to find answers, but perhaps not the best place to find confidantes.

you continue to react angrily to many things - bringing up aresenic in formula and saying how you never want to have a blood transfusion - you sound so conflicted and confused - while "breast is best," formula should probably not be vilified to the degree it often is on this forum (and in your posts); it obviously helped your first child SURVIVE when you did not have enough supply - and it looks like you are a person with supply issues (you talk about needing fenugreek tablets a lot): so one has to ask, if "nature" is best, of we are all "meant" to eat our placentas because all animals do, then why or why didn't you enough breastmilk? what is wrong with you? why should you have to take any kind of supplement? the human body is meant to nourish a child, so if it can't, does that mean that child should be left to starve, or, worse, to die? since i have great supply, should my children survive and yours die? guess what? NO! because we are not only mammals, but humans who were given reason and opposible thumbs and large brains and the capacity to make substitutes to breast milk for those who could not, or do not wish, to nurse their young. and that is wonderful. that is wonderful.

as is how we have advanced as a society where we encourage the donation of our BLOOD to random strangers so that their lives might go on (no other mammalian species is altruistic to this degree). but, note, you are welcome to refuse blood - that is your right; you can even refuse it on admission to the maternity ward when the consent papers come so that your wishes are known for an emergency situation - so, if you are comatose or worse, the physicians can know it was your wish never to receive a blood transfusion. and if you feel so strongly about blood, then i hope you refuse it, so that it can be spared for someone who needs, and wants, and values, it.

and, last, what is found in nature (like eating the placenta) is not always best - many examples above - but what i remember most from my childhood is watching my hamster eat her first little.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

You will be hungry an hour later.

Only if it is Chinese placenta. (I can believe I just said that...so not pc.)

Bwaaahahahaha!
I thought it when I read this, just didn't say it. And the PC police are coming for us....

[Anonymous]

My dog ate half of her first litter when I was a kid. That is a nutritional option.

[Anonymous]

8:55, it is so, so kind of you to come back and write such a long response even after the OP was so hostile towards you earlier. It sounds like you're a great doctor and a compassionate person - I don't think I would have come back and given my time to the OP the way you did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Eh, tastes like chicken.

That's reasuring

[Anonymous]

OP needs a complete personality transplant.

[Anonymous]

OP, get some therapy. You are really mean and emotionally all over the place. I can't imagine eating anything that's going to make a bigger difference than actually finding a trained mental health professional to talk to.

Really, for the sake of your kids, get help.