Eating placenta?! Don't know where else to ask this

[maestramommy]

Please don't flame me, this is a sincere question!

Is eating one's placenta after giving birth an actual practice? I don't mean by Scientologists (I guess Tom Cruise got asked this question), but DH sent me a link to an article about it. Included was a reference to Mothering Magazine's Summer 1983 issue, which allegedly contained recipes for placenta. Can anyone verify this claim?

[himom]

Oddly enough, you're not the first to ask!

http://tinyurl.com/q8htm

As I recall, one author believed it kept her from getting PPD. All I can say is...oookay. To each her own, but I don't think I could do it.

I hate liver, and I have to close my eyes, hold my nose, and imagine really hard that it is something else. I can't even imagine placenta.

Jodi

[ChunkyNicksChunkyMom]

I WAS kidding!!!!

Susan

#1 Nick 11-18-04
#2 Kate 04-26-06

[himom]

LOL! You mean you didn't really add carrots and potatos? I thought that was so cool! ;)

As it happens, I linked the old post above before actually I went back and read it. When I said "one author" I guess I was remembering the birthrites link. I finally went back through and re-read everything, and hey, she does recommend a stew since it doesn't destroy the steroids! So I guess you had the right idea!

[amp]

Yes. I had a class once where the prof talked a bit about the different rituals different people have surrounding birth and the placenta. He gave out a recipe for Placenta Stew. Ick! And he talked about that and about also the practice of burying the placenta at the base of a tree or something like that.

[brittone2]

Yep, some old school midwives etc. say it can also help prevent post partum hemmorhage I believe.

I couldn't do it in a million years, but from what I have read, supposedly it actually has very little taste (I know, gag!).

Like many other things though, if it were part of your culture it would all seem very normal I guess.

[kijip]

Yes people do it. My hippie high school teacher (well one of the hippie high school teachers I had at my hippie high school, LOL) who was the mother of like 9 children ate the placenta after all of her deliveries (5 or 6, I think but it has been a few years since I saw her last). She even invited people to join the "feast".

I know other people that bury it when they plant a tree for the baby.

All I can say is never, in 10 million years, would I partake of such a "feast".

[suz]

Yes, I've heard of this. My mom says back in her country, older people with health issues would want to buy the placenta from recent births because they believe the placenta with all its nutrients is very healing to their ailing bodies.

I don't think I would be able to eat it because I gag very easily.

[marit]

Kinda tastes like chicken. :9

[aliceinwonderland]

I have also heard the hemmorhage reason, that back in the day when women gave birth in the fields, etc. that was a way to prevent bleeding to death. Not sure whether this is a myth or what.

[kep]

Ewwwwww! :)

I've heard of this, too. Yup, it's true. Definately, definately, not for me.

Kelli
Proud Mommy to Lukey (4.2003)

http://b4.lilypie.com/G0VTm4.png

[psophia17]

Cows and other animals eat the placenta after they give birth. If I remember this right, it's because there are huge amounts of nutrients in there that give an immediate boost to the immune system, both for the mama animal and the baby.

[bunnisa]

My Bradley instructor said to take a big 'ol bite out of the placenta if you started to hemmorhage. (So it would have to be a matter of life or death for me to consider. YUCK!)

We didn't keep it to fertilize a tree, either (although that doesn't seem so weird since you'd have the tree to commemorate the birth, etc).

Honestly, I felt no great love for or attachment to the placentas. I was just glad to get them out! ;)

Bethany
blessed wife and mama to two!

"And children are always a good thing, devoutly to be wished for and fiercely to be fought for."
-Justin Torres

[bunnisa]

>Yes, I've heard of this. My mom says back in her country,
>older people with health issues would want to buy the placenta
>from recent births because they believe the placenta with all
>its nutrients is very healing to their ailing bodies.

Hmm, maybe I should have saved mine for Ebay!

Bethany
blessed wife and mama to two!

"And children are always a good thing, devoutly to be wished for and fiercely to be fought for."
-Justin Torres