Ingesting Your Placenta

Recently I came across an interesting article in USA Today about women ingesting their placentas and whether or not it was beneficial to them. From the article:

The practice, known as placentophagy, is far from widespread and is received with great skepticism by more traditional medical experts. But among a small but vocal contingent of expectant mothers and proponents, it is strongly believed
that the organ created by the woman's body to pass nutrients between mother and fetus and is expelled after birth is rich in chemicals that can help mitigate fluctuations in hormones believed to cause postpartum depression.

I would have to say that after my experience with post partum depression following the Mermaid's birth, I was seriously considering ingesting my placenta when the Guppy was born. I did a lot of research on the topic and felt that even if it didn't help, it wouldn't hurt me either and therefore I had nothing to lose. However, I felt so great and calm after the Guppy birth that I ended up putting the placenta in our deep freezer....it still sits there, waiting to be planted under a tree in the yard of our first house.

I have heard that if you are alone and birthing without medical aid nearby, and you start to hemorrhage after the birth, taking a big bite of your placenta will stop the bleeding and save your life.

If you do decide to ingest your placenta after you give birth, you can choose to eat it raw, get it dried and put into capsules, or you can cook it. There are great recipes for placenta meals on the web, including for placenta pizza, placenta roast, placenta spaghetti, etc.

Placenta roast....very interesting....

Ingesting Your Placenta