Many people that I talk to are automatically repulsed by the idea of consuming the placenta. I have to admit, when I first heard about it, it was pretty strange to think about. However, when I started learning about all of the benefits of consuming the placenta postpartum (increased milk production, balancing hormones, reducing postpartum depression, and more) and when I learned that nearly all mammals consume their placenta post birth, it suddenly didn't seem quite as terrible to me. When I learned that some people professionally hire someone to prepare your placenta, and then encapsulate it into little pills, I was even more into the idea.
For some reason, preparing the placenta in the form of lasagna or placenta meat loaf makes me feel a little sick to my stomach. But the idea of taking a supplement, over the course of a month or two sounds much more do-able. The idea of having something to balance my hormones during menopause sounds even more amazing to me.
A colleague of mine, Anne Ferguson, does placenta encapsulation for women in the Twin Cities area. She got to have a little blurb in the local news, and I thought I would pass it on to you so you can see what it is like.
Here is the written article for the news cast: http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2012/02/16/doula-consuming-placenta-can-help-postpartum-depression/
There is some skepticism in the news cast that there is not sufficient evidence that this is a beneficial practice. However, I would like to offer that there are resources out there that speak to the benefits of placenta encapsulation. Here is just one of those.
http://placentabenefits.info/research.asp
If you aren't quite up for consuming your placenta, you may at least consider keeping it to make a beautiful "placenta print" or to plant a tree in your back yard over the top of it.
No comments:
Post a Comment