The picture above is an example of a placenta print. I had never even heard of doing this before until I saw one at my midwife's office the other day. The one she had belonged to a gal that chose to not use paint. That's right, no paint means the print was just placenta blood on paper. I think placentas are great and I am all for natural stuff, but this actually turned my stomach. I won't be doing a placenta print after this baby is born. Sorry if that is a disappointment! I think placentas are wickedly awesome, but I definitely don't want it on the wall. Let's stick with baby footprints.
I was recently with a group of expecting moms who were discussing placenta encapsulation. Ingesting placenta capsules is kinda weird, for sure, but what's really weird is the people who willingly cut up and dry out a placenta to make them! I am not brave enough, let me tell you. I don't have a weak stomach, but I wouldn't make it through a process like that without losing it. It involves blood rinsing, chunk cutting, dehydrating, and grinding. "Hi, I hope you don't mind, but I borrowed your coffee grinder to grind a dehydrated placenta. Nothing gross or anything, totally natural. The coffee you already drank this morning tasted fine, right?"
Placenta capsules are supposed to offer all kinds of health benefits. Postpartum healing, milk production, energy and mood support, etc. I am not going to deny that I am actually a little interested about the benefits of placenta pills.
Some women were even telling me how they saved their left-ever capsules, after they used them postpartum, in the freezer and took them for PMS. I hadn't heard of this, either, but apparently they help lift your mood and help PMS symptoms. Super weird.
The weirdest thing that I heard about placentas was the mom who said she ate hers. I know animals eat them, I know that it's a primal thing, but I don't think I have the stamina to even consider such a thing. How bizarre. If you want to eat your placenta there are plenty of recipes here on the internet for you!
They look gross, they really do. But they do a heck of a good job feeding babies in the womb and assisting in the formation of tiny humans! They are literally organs. In fact, they function as multiple organs in one. The placenta feeds your baby, is your baby's kidneys, immune system and lungs! They are the only organs that the body gets rid of when the organ has fulfilled its purpose. It's amazing, truly. And how incredible that the mother and baby have blood that pass through the placenta in separate arteries without mixing!
And to all you dads completely grossed out by just the word placenta (I like to taunt my husband like how the hyenas taunt each other saying "Mufasa" on The Lion King. "Placenta, placenta, placenta!"), you're involved. The formation of a placenta requires sperm, obviously, so you're just as responsible.
Remember, we've all been supported by a placenta. It's natural, it's life.
Don't worry, I'm not going to eat mine.