Written by Kayti Ricker, VP San Diego Birth Network

On a rainy night last week in Encinitas, Jenny West put little pinky-sized bits of recently birthed placenta into 4 plastic cups of apple juice and blended them with a little hand-blender.   Those of us who were willing to believe her claim, “You won’t taste it.  Really!  You don’t believe me, but you really can’t tell it’s in there!” took our first tentative sips as we peered into the forbidding cup of “tree of life,” still red and meaty, in our smoothies.  She was right.  I could not taste it.  All I could taste was the sweetness of apple juice.  I could see it, and feel a little stringy bit at the bottom, but it was enough to convince us that it wasn’t the craziest damn thing we ever did.

Over two long nights, a few of us took a course on Placental Encapsulation.  I had been half intrigued, half dismissive of the whole “Eat your placenta like a big piece of liver,” idea, and had broached the subject with my clients like, “ah, SOME people DO eat their placentas after birth, but most of MY clients just bury them under a new tree, or let them go.”  I mean really, I didn’t want to SCARE my poor new parents to be.  I was VERY CAREFUL not to upset my clients’ dispositions by even SUGGESTING that they should take this thing and fry it up with some onions and parsley.   I mean, really, nobody does this, right?

And then I had a homebirth client who had her placenta encapsulated, and she was beaming, even though her baby was the “not-sleeping type.”   And THEN Jenny West, the midwife from New Mexico was giving a workshop called Placenta Encapsulation right here in Encinitas and I just had to go.  Call it intrigue into the big mystery of the organic mass of pregnancy.

Turns out, women who ingest their placentas after birth get much energy back into their systems, and feel better.  They actually feel more energized.  They have more breastmilk, and they suffer much less from post-partum blues and depression (maybe even ZERO ppd).  AND, (wait for it…) it actually can help with MENOPAUSE.  Holy Mother.  “Bio-Identical” takes on a whole new meaning!  Half the encapsulated pills are saved for MENOPAUSE, to replace the hormones the body is losing.  In other words, there’s something in those rich red veins that puts something back IN when life has taken so much!!!  We don’t know for sure what it is, because apparently medical science hasn’t really looked into this too much yet,  but whatever it is:  hormones?  life-energy?  nutrients?  baby goo? It means momma’s happy.  “And when mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.”

So now I’m sold on Placentas.  One of my clients had donated her placenta to be encapsulated during our workshop, and a week later told me she thought it might have helped.  She said, “I’m not sure, but I think I have more energy.   It might be a placebo effect, but I don’t care.  I just wanted to feel better.”  (She was driving her car around town, and to me, she sounded COMPLETELY different than she had a week earlier.  She had energy in her voice.)  She said, “I really didn’t care about anything a week ago.  I didn’t want to see anyone, or do anything.  And now, I’m starting to want to see my friends, and do some things.  So that’s good.” 

I think women should ingest some of their placentas right after birth, raw*, (a pinky’s worth, okay, not a hunk of meat) and do some more raw in the days following birth, and then have most of it encapsulated.  It’s that good for you.  It’s that miraculous, magical, mammal, mundane, organ which sustained life inside the body, and is MEANT for the mother mammal to eat after the child is born to restore HER energy and to protect her from U.S. society’s incessant intrusions after birth.  They are the visits to the pediatrician, the many calls from well-meaning friends, the stay in the hospital, the running-around to get things, and the lack of community around the new (or renewed) family that make women tired.  It’s the superwoman image and lack of understanding about the need for rest and total support post-partum.  But that’s another article.  Eat your placentas.  See for yourself.  What have you got to lose?

*Placenta eaten raw after birth can stop a hemorrhage.  Tell your doctor.