The following morning, my wife sat out of the way in the front room while I set about one of her body parts in the kitchen. Sadly, none of the biscuity nuances came through in the meat. The blender looked rank. After 10 minutes of watching a hefty chunk of placenta whirl round the Magimix, it finally broke down into the banana and coconut water.
Up front was the distinct flavour of banana, superseded by a metallic, bloody backnote. It had a mineral earthiness to it and tasted exactly like the delivery room had smelled. The cooked placenta, on the other hand, was actually pretty good. The meat was rich, with a beef-like quality. However, the benefits of placentophagy are anecdotal and some mums do not experience the positive benefits. The benefits of eating your placenta have not been fully researched or understood.
In the wild, several animals eat the afterbirth which leads some to think there must be a reason why this is beneficial. Some believe animals eat their placenta to simply get rid of the smell to protect their newborn against predators.
Other research suggests it restores nutrients lost during pregnancy and can increase mother-child bonding. The placenta does contain good protein and fats but these nutrients are all part of a healthy diet. Have a watch of this really interesting video that we found all about the placenta and how some mum's felt after eating theirs.
Still tempted to eat your placenta, but not sure how to go about it? We outline a few options you have to consume your placenta.
Encapsulation is the new trend in placental cuisine, especially since Mad Men star January Jones announced she popped placenta pills after the birth of her baby. A specialist can do this for you — they take your placenta after birth and cook, dehydrate and grind it into powder, before encasing it in a vegetable-based capsule.
But, as we mentioned above, you can hire someone to do this for you. Add herbs or garlic for taste if you want. Writing on her blog Mama Natural , Genevieve Howland reveals how consuming her placenta in the form of pills significantly increased her milk supply.
And that was certainly the case with me. However, there are many mothers commenting on parenting forums who say that placentophagy had a positive effect on their milk production. In a blog on Babble — which is an online magazine for moms — Elizabeth Stark tells of how consuming placenta pills significantly improved her postpartum experience.
In one study published in , researchers conducted a survey of women who had engaged in placentophagy, many of whom had had previous experiences of postnatal mood disorders.
Approximately 40 percent of the women in the study reported an improvement in postnatal mood after placenta consumption, and almost all of the women said that they would engage in placentophagy with their next child. Advocates of placentophagy claim that the practice can help to manage after-birth pain. One study in rats found that female rodents that ate their placenta had a higher pain threshold than rats that did not eat their placenta.
However, there is no scientific evidence to suggest that placenta consumption offers pain relief in humans.
While there seems to be plenty of anecdotal evidence for the benefits of placentophagy, research tells a different story. A review conducted by investigators from the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, IL, concluded that there is insufficient evidence to suggest that eating the placenta provides health benefits for new mothers.
The conclusion came from an in-depth analysis of existing animal and human studies that assessed the health effects of placentophagy. What is more, a case report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC published earlier this year indicates that placenta consumption could even be harmful — not only for the mother, but for the baby, too.
The report revealed that a mother who consumed placenta pills contracted group B Streptococcus GBS , and that this was passed to her child. The CDC suggest that during encapsulation, the placenta was not heated at the temperature required to destroy the GBS bacterium.
Consumption of contaminated placenta capsules might have elevated maternal GBS intestinal and skin colonization, facilitating transfer to the infant.
But in response to this report , Placenta Benefits — a website that advocates placentophagy — write that the CDC should not recommend against consuming placenta pills based on one case. Due to the lack of scientific evidence that placentophagy is beneficial for humans, many critics believe that the practice should not be recommended for new mothers.
Alex Farr, of the Medical University of Vienna in Austria, who recently co-authored a review of human placentophagy. After the placenta is genetically part of the newborn, eating the placenta borders on cannibalism. Farr and his review team also note that expectant mothers with an interest in placentophagy should be warned of the potential risks that the practice poses. However, speaking in , Dr.
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