Placenta Medicine Awesomeness

Have I ever omitted to post anything and everything that I find on placenta medicine? No, I have not!

Why not?

Because placenta medicine is so amazingly awesome - I want the world to know about it! Once one gets over the "eww yuck" factor, there are so many wonderful benefits from this practice.

And so, without further ado.....

An article by one of my wonderful doulas, Nikki:

The Placenta Lady

And, if you can believe it, this article was posted on the blogs of one of our local OB practices. Is that not amazing, wonderful, superb? Hurray for Boojum Obstetrics!

Nikki says:

"My own personal experience was enough to convince me that placental medicine works. I had my daughter at a time in my life when emotions were high. My mother in law died unexpectedly 2 weeks before my due date. She and my father in law were supposed to visit our new daughter and us shortly after her due date. Obviously, that didn’t happen. My father in law and sister in law came instead and I spent a good part of my recovery from a difficult vaginal birth entertaining heartbroken relatives while trying to grieve myself. Amazingly, even through all of that, I experienced only 1 weepy day. Previously, postpartum, for me, meant 2-3 weeks of crying non-stop until I ended up using medications. I was so surprised and encouraged that it worked!"

Good stuff!

And another short article on the same subject:


Placentophagia: Benefits of Eating the Placenta

From that article:

"In Western cultures, eating the placenta is often viewed as barbaric, but thanks to new information about the surprising benefits, there has been a recent push among young mothers to eat the placenta after giving birth. While many Western doctors discourage placentophagia with the claim that it carries no inherent benefits, studies have shown that eating the placenta can curb postpartum depression, replenish nutrients, increase milk production, and slow postpartum hemmorrhage." (emphasis mine)

And on the "risks" associated with placentophagia:

"Many doctors, especially in Western culture, have expressed some concern that eating the placenta may spread disease such as HIV, hepatitis, and other blood-borne illness. However, placentophagia is traditionally practiced only by the mother and not by other parties, so there is no risk of spreading disease. If she has a disease, she cannot reinfect herself, and if she is not currently ill, she cannot become ill from eating her own placenta."

So, to summarize: Placenta medicine has no risks and a plethora of benefits - it is something that needs to make it out there to the general public! I simply could not believe the difference that placenta medicine made for me after my second birth - it was night and day difference after I started to use it, and I will never voluntarily omit it from my postpartum regimen!

If you haven't looked into this yet, please do!