Strollerderby : Placenta

Eating Your Baby's Placenta

Cole Gamble — Thu, 28 May 2009 17:00:00 GMT

Placentophagia is term for eating of the placenta, and you know if there's a name for it, it's a real deal. Animals, of course, do it al the time. Anyone whose cat had kitten can attest. Humans also engage in the pratice all over the world because it's said to stem postpartum depression and help to contract the uterus after the birth. Chrissy Schilling over at Momlogic details her own placenta feast with twin sister Kathy. From her post:

"The placenta is such an amazing organ in all its done for my baby that it didn't seem right to simply throw it away. My thought was "being the only organ that the human body makes that naturally exits the body, why not take advantage of it?"

Chrissy and Kathy got more than just one meal out of the six pound placenta. They served it over noodles and made sandwiches.

Chrissy even found the experience cathartic:

"By taking it in again, it was symbolic for me as a way to truly say "good-bye" to my 9-month pregnancy and "hello" to an exciting (albeit challenging) new chapter in my life.

See? Delicious, nutricious and life affirming. It's good to eat stuff that comes out of your body. Except poop. So, can I fix you up a nice egg and placenta scramble?

Photo: Kathy Schilling

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How About Some Placenta in that IV Drip?

JeanneSager — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 13:21:00 GMT

Just when you thought the really freaky people were mashing their placenta into loaf form or rubbing it into their cheeks, along come the Japanese health spas with their IV drips of afterbirth.

All it costs is $30 and ten minutes of your time . . . and a stomach that won't start churning at the thought of what they're pumping into your veins in the pursuit of youth.

An in-depth look at Tenteki 10, the spa named for the Japanese word for IV, appeared on Slate this week, and it hashes out the argument over whether the health benefits of placental use are real or imagined. It's interesting reading, especially the look at how "human placental extract" is actually made:

Manufacturers simply gather human placentas from women who have just given birth and place the tissue on ice. Then, they cut it into pieces, test it for viruses, perform chemical separation and purification steps, and sterilize and seal the product. Some proteins may be rendered inactive by sterilization. And some manufacturers may remove specific groups of molecules.

What I wonder is how many of these women know the placenta, which they've carried around for nine months along with their baby, essentially providing the lifeblood to that baby, is now headed to some random person's veins? That it's about to be cut into pieces and "sterilized."

When I gave birth, my doctor offered me the chance to look at the placenta. My husband took him up on it, while I told him honestly, "I'm more interested in her right now," and stared across the delivery room at the nurses working to clean up my newborn daughter. My OB went on and on about how impressive the placenta is, with the sort of passion that makes him a fantastic doctor. I didn't care. I wanted to hold my little girl. What happened to it next, I don't know. Medical waste, I'd imagine.

If I thought that the placenta could have made a difference in someone's life - a true difference, the way a heart or kidney donation could - maybe I would have paid more attention. But I'd imagine most women are like me; more interested in getting their hands on their newborn than in finding out what's happening with the afterbirth.

Source Slate via Jezebel

Image: Jezebel

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Birth Organs Gone Wild: Placenta Prints

Madeline Holler — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 20:01:00 GMT

An acquaintance of mine -- she's given birth four times -- hands over her babies' umbilical cords to her mother. Nana then waits for inspiration, shapes the cords accordingly and allows them to dry. Then she mounts them for wall hanging. And, you know, hangs them.

Me? I'm attached to my organs up to and through their practical utility, at which point I'm more than happy to let them go. Others -- clearly much deeper thinkers than myself -- find them artful.

Take, for example, the people behind this special find (thanks to Cookie Mag's Crab Mommy): placenta prints and placenta print-making kits! Quick, get Matthew McConaughey on the line!

No need to stop at inky footprints. And, indeed, that's a nice looking placenta!

What sort of afterbirth hangs on your walls?

Matthew McConaughey keeps placenta

Image: blissfulmomblessedbaby.com

Matthew McConaughey keeps placenta

Brett Singer — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 15:00:00 GMT

When I first saw the headline, "McConaughey plans placenta burial", I thought, "Ah. A new high/low in celebrity wackiness."

It turns out, though, that burying the placenta is a not uncommon practice in some cultures. In fact, you can even purchase a Placenta Burial Jar online. So making fun of it would be, at best, culturally insensitive.

Still, I have questions. Like, where do you keep the placenta until the burial? In a jar? In the fridge? What does it smell like? And "burial" seems like a morbid term to me, even though that is, literally, what you are doing. And do you visit the site of the burial? Matt says that he was inspired by a "placenta tree" he saw in Australia, so maybe he hopes a tree will pop up where little Levi's former food supply is put in the ground. So, like, road trip to see the placenta?

In some cultures, the placenta is, um, eaten. I guess Matt didn't want to go that far. No word on whether or not he'll keep his damn fool shirt on during the ceremony.

image/source: nzherald.co.nz

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New Uses for Old Products

Adrienne Martini — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 13:00:00 GMT

The solution for younger-looking skin has been with us all the time! We've just been foolish and wasteful enough to throw it away!

No, beauty isn't a result of diet or exercise or positive self-talk. It's locked away in the placenta.

I know what you're thinking. I'm thinking the same think, even more so now that I googled for placenta images. But a Japanese company called Nihon Sofuken is marketing a new line of "drinks, jellies and face masks" that harness the healing powers of the afterbirth.

I have nothing against the placenta. They are great, placentas are. I just don't want to smear it on my face -- even if it has, as Nihon promotes, a "delicate peach" flavor and is technically vegan.

Rest assured, pregnant ladies. Your former organs will not be snatched up after delivery. The products are only made from pig placentas. I'm just not sure if that is more squick inducing or less.

Photo credit: dailymail.co.uk

One Woman's Bio-Trash is Another's Mood-Boosting Good Eats

Madeline Holler — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 20:27:00 GMT

For me, there’s something about placenta-eating that tickles the ol’ gag reflex. And I say this as a dedicated carnivore who has eaten her fair share of strange delicacies (raw horsemeat comes immediately to mind).

Why should I be so opposed to eating, literally, my own flesh and blood? After all, I’m constantly gnawing on my cuticles.

But body-part analogies could not keep me from dry-heaving my way through Jezebel’s reposting of cooking show's transcript where the featured ingredient is a placenta.

The crowning gory glory is this:

MARY: [Carrying the mousse, which has been shaped with a Bundt mold, to the buffet table] It's got a bit of the old cervix look about it, doesn't it?
SUE: Absolutely, dear. I thought it was very appropriate.

(Now I'm cramping.)

Fine. If you need your placenta-snacking to be a little more clinical, MSNBC has a write-up on women who ingest placenta, in one form or another, to stave off the baby blues. Some women dry it, grind it and load it into capsules. Others, um, don't. (Bottom lip is starting to quiver, plus I looked at that Placenta-loaf picture again. I'm canceling lunch plans.)

There's no evidence that it works, but the featured women swear by it. One woman even started her own placenta encapsulating kit company. While she gets lots of traffic to her website, she said she hasn't sold many kits so far.

Sidenote: The article includes a broad survey of placenta-revering from around the world, including this interesting tidbit:

“Tribes in the Ural Mountains in Russia thought of the placenta as a caretaker for the child — and as such, it deserved a warm welcome. Along with carefully knitted clothes for the infant, they’d create a tiny shirt for the placenta.” How do they know which side is up? Has one been featured over on Drool.icio.us?

I don’t feel so good.

For placenta recipes (why?), go here.

Photo of Walnut-Pate: Daddy Types

Parasite, Nematode, and Other Zingers to Call Your Kids

Matt Wood — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 14:02:00 GMT

Okay, you already knew your kids were parasites after they're born, sucking the life out of you for 18+ years like an ungrateful, back-talking tapeworm. But did you know this starts in the womb by design?

Scientists at the University of Reading in the UK discovered that the placenta secretes a special protein that cloaks it from the mother's immune system. This protein--called neurokinin B, or NKB, if you must know--prevents mom's body from attacking that lump of nutrient providing goodness. The version generated by the placenta contains a special molecule that is also used by parasitic nematode worms to hide themselves from their host's defenses.

The point to all this nerd talk, besides making you the single most exciting conversationalist at the next Gymboree class, is that researchers think the protein could be a key to understanding the causes of pre-eclampsia and recurrent miscarriages. Women with pre-eclampsia have much higher levels of NKB. It can be detected as early as nine-weeks into pregnancy, so the scientists believe it can be used to spot women who are at risk. They also hope it can also be used to reverse autoimmune disorders like rheumatoid arthritis.

What Goes With Your Own Placenta, Red Wine or White?

Karen Murphy — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 14:02:00 GMT

After my youngest son was born, my midwife held up my placenta to me so I could see it and invited me to look closer. I looked. It was like a huge slab of...organ. Liver? She held it lovingly, as if it was as precious as what I was holding, the tiny breathing brand-new human who had just made his entrance into the world.

Look! Placenta! gestured my midwife. Look what was inside you!

But look what I have, I gestured back with silent indifference, slightly adjusting my hold on my son. I'm pretty sure what I have is better.

Want to take it home? she asked.

I had heard of this, of course. Women who bury their placentas under a full moon, or under a tree, maybe. A spiritual thing. While aspects of that were certainly appealing to me, there was the problem of the...meatishness of it all. Ew.

So! On Mothertalkers there's a discussion of a practice called placentophagy, where the placenta is dried and processed into capsules to be consumed by its original owner. To ward off postpartum depression. Those who have tried it swear by it. (After all, it's good enough for Tom Cruise!) I totally have an open mind to things like this, only I will tell you right now that it's not for me. So what if most mammals consume their own "afterbirth"? Aren't they just being, I don't know, tidy?

So what do you think? Have you done this? Know anyone who has?

Wait, Doctor! Don't Cut That Baby's Cord Yet!

Karen Murphy — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 13:03:00 GMT

It's not often that a mere two minutes can make much of an impact in a person's life, but every time a baby is born there is an opportunity to do just that. If you could, say, lower your baby's risk of anemia, you'd do it, right? It turns out it's easy: just wait two minutes before clamping your baby's umbilical cord. Current western medical practices dictate cord-clamping almost immediately after birth, a practice that seems to have no earthly reason. After all, a baby's cord blood is often saved, is it not? Then why not have that blood go to the baby directly? A new study reveals that anemia rates dropped significantly when only two minutes (as opposed to practically no minutes) elapsed before clamping the cord, and this raised iron stores in the body for up to six months after birth. That's pretty significant.

With my babies, at least with two of them, we waited quite awhile before the cords were clamped and then cut. It only seemed appropriate, and after all I wasn't going anywhere right away anyway, so why not? Had I known about the Lotus Birth, the practice of keeping the entire placenta intact until the umbilicus drops off naturally, I might have gone for it. Well, maybe not. There's the "ew" factor of carrying around a drying placenta for several days that I might not have been able to get past. But it make sense in so many other ways. Which is why I'm thinking it will be pretty easy for new parents to at least choose to wait the two minutes.

It's Time to Play: Weird or Waldorf?

Stefania Pomponi Butler (CityMama) — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 15:03:00 GMT

Yes, ladies and gentleman, that's right! It's that time again! Time to play—Weird Or Waldorf!

You are today's lucky contestant and it's up to you to decide if today's item is weird or Waldorf. We know how hard a distinction that is given that Waldorfians are known for their creepy, faceless dolls and cold, impersonal wooden toys.

Allrighty, let's play!

Today's item is a felted wool placenta! That's right, ladies and gents! It's a placenta hand-crafted out of soft, cuddly wool! (All natural fibers, of course.) Not only that, nature's only disposable organ is still attached to the baby by—you guessed it!— the woolen umbilical cord!

The placenta is criss-crossed with dyed-wool arteries and veins which adds to its authenticity. It even comes with a handy carrying case in the form of "a laboring woman's womb." Those Waldorfians think of everything, don't they?!

Okay, we're getting down to the wire here and I know what a tough decision this must be. You hand this toy to your kid. Does she love the little baby or run screaming from the room?

It's time to decide: Weird? Or Waldorf?

[photo credit: Fairy Wool Dolls]

Strollerderby : Placenta

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Parasite, Nematode, and Other Zingers to Call Your Kids

What Goes With Your Own Placenta, Red Wine or White?

Wait, Doctor! Don't Cut That Baby's Cord Yet!

It's Time to Play: Weird or Waldorf?