Seriously, though. Raise your hand if you're a placentarian! (Extra credit goes to those of you with photographic proof.)
Or... if you have a good placenta pun, that would also suffice.
GGC
Placentacos con WTFamole
...taste especially delicious after umbilical c'ordeuvres:
Seriously, though. Raise your hand if you're a placentarian! (Extra credit goes to those of you with photographic proof.)
GGC
Seriously, though. Raise your hand if you're a placentarian! (Extra credit goes to those of you with photographic proof.)
GGC
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63 comments:
Umbilical c'ordouvres! Oh man, that's going to stick with me forever.
I watched this earlier and was gagging at the thought. More power to those that do but I won't be on the eating off that menu.
Ha, the nurse said the mom before me delivered and the family came in with a blender. Blended the placenta up, handed out even portions and did a good ol' cheers!
Mmm, bottoms up!
I think that is when I asked for the epidural...
OMGNO.
No words for this, just gagging sounds.
Yes, I think you're crazy! I just actually gagged watching this. Just because COWS DO IT does not make it a good idea. Would you drink your menstrual blood?! It would replace your iron, too!
I think I just threw up a little bit.
...I guess I should eat it? Wouldn't want to lose the nutrients.
Well... I am hesitant to admit this, but I had my placenta encapsulated... and... I also drank a placenta smoothie right after my son was born (my midwife made it for me). As a vegetarian, I can't believe I did that, because: EW. Yuck. I blame the post birth hormones for that one. I couldn't taste the placenta, if that matters.
The encapsulated placenta, on the other hand, isn't gross at all, and I strongly believe that it has helped to prevent post-partum depression. I took it religiously for the first several weeks of my son's life, and now, whenever I feel moody or down, I take a couple and feel better. Placebo effect? Maybe. But who cares? It worked for me.
There is also some evidence that it helps with breastmilk production... something that I have not had a problem with at all.
Picture of the encapsulated placenta here: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/zUwibCyi4oJNW98lBvyA6A?feat=directlink
You're in a safe place, Lyndsay. You're in a safe place. Now, please hold me.
For real, though. Thank you for sharing. It's all very fascinating.
I have a few thoughts on this:
1. ZOMG, EWWWWW.
2. I don't find the anecdotal evidence for benefits of placenta eating very convincing. And not just for placenta, for every other "miracle food" or "best diet ever." I just don't buy it, but more power to you if it worked for you. In this case, no harm done. (Diet fads, on the other hand...)
3. GAG, BLECH BLEAAH GAAAG.
4. Rebecca, you are so funny. I am going to be giggling about "c'ordeuvres" for a long time.
God that is effing disgusting. Please don't let my post birth hormones make me do anything this disgusting!!!!!!!! eck!!!!! ugh!!!!!! The comments were hilarious from those of you as disgusted as me. I cant express how freaking sick this is. LOL.
man, if i decide to get knocked up again I so plan on doing it... why the hell not! i like the idea of the encapsulated placenta.
Confession time:
I thought my placenta was awesome-looking. Not gross at all. (Okay, maybe a little gross. But in an awesome way.)
Also? I kind of wanted to eat it. I swear. But a.) I'm vegan, and few things look as non-vegan as fresh placenta, and b.) I'm the cook in my family, and the idea of preparing it? Skeeved me the fuck out. Like crazy.
I guess I'm cool with the idea of eating placenta, but when it comes down to it...NO.
My placenta (or is it my son's placenta?) went into the freezer until spring, and then it went into the ground under a miniature rosebush.
I hate to get all defensive, but I can assure you that your own placenta is WAY less disgusting than the chicken, beef, pork, and dairy you consume on a daily basis (unless, of course, you are a vegan, then more power to you!).
That said, the idea of placenta tacos or lasagna still turns my stomach... but so does any other meal with meat in it.
I'll tell you what. As someone who hasn't consumed red meat in sixteen years, I'd rather eat my/your/some stranger's placenta smoothie than a hamburger.
But, man. I would have to be very, very drunk
As I said in the Momversation comment thread, Rebecca, LOVE the man-of-war comparison.
I actually thought the blender comment was a joke until I read the account that followed. I never would do this, but yeah, more power to you all. It's certainly not bad for you or the baby -- in fact, it's at least marginally good, biologically -- so have at it. I'm pretty hard to gross out, even if I do think it's a bit odd.
I will say that it seems the more food-like it is upon consumption, the weirder it seems.
I'm not really bothered by the idea of eating placenta. And it doesn't really bother me that anyone else would choose to eat their own placenta.
I had anemia BAD during my pregnancy, and if the doctor told me to gobble that thing up, fresh out of the 'oven'... I would have. Anemia sucks.
However, I didn't get the joy of even seeing my placenta... I had a c/s after a failed induction at 42 weeks. So, I didn't even think to ask for my placenta... as I was being cut in half.
But, the doctors told my husband that even at 42 weeks, my placenta looked super healthy. And that my 10 lb baby could have been in there for weeks longer, with no problems...
Now you know everything I know about my placenta.
This is probably where I thank the powers that be for my being under general anesthesia (c-section, yeah, "pressure" my ass).
Also, "WTFamole" has now found a place in my vocab.
I donated my placenta to an organization that trains police dogs to sniff out missing persons. I don't remember the details, my midwife asked me if I wanted to donate immediately after I gave birth so it's all a little hazy. It sounded like a good idea at the time.
Now I get to tell people my placenta is so totally badass it helps fight crime.
After watching this i google placenta sandwich....
Gag Gag Gag
Thanks for that...
Hmmm. Sean totally wanted to eat the placenta, but I was out. However, I think I read about Lyndsay on Offbeat Mama (or it could have been someone else..?) and I love the idea of encapsulating it, because I have heard that it is AMAZING for post-partum depression and the general crazy hormonal after effects. I find it fascinating that so many people are so crazy judgmental about this, of all things, but eating source-unknown meat doesn't phase them. I'm also a vegetarian, but I wouldn't consider the placenta the same as eating meat. And it would have to be in capsules.
I also actually thought the placenta was really pretty! Not the bloody side, but the other side, with all the purple veins (I guess?) looked like a tree. It was kind of nice.
Weird when it flopped out of my body, though.
I didn't even look at my placenta when the doc asked if I wanted to see it. I wanted my baby toweled off some before they handed him to me. I'm not down with the all the liquids and gushiness coming out of my body and while I think my body is super women for making and feeding a child, I'm good not seeing the details of how it all works. I'm more--"its a miracle" and leave it at that. I'm in my first trimester with baby #2 and all this placenta talk is making me nauseated.
I did the placenta encapsulation, as well! It saved me from PPD, I'm convinced. I was having a rough time the first few days postpartum so I started taking my placenta pills and all was better. I definitely recommend it. I think casulizing is the way to go for us modern folk!
I just want to walk around saying "encapsulated placenta" all day. Come on. Say it. It's fun. Right up there with Yogalates.
Viva la placentapuns!And Amanda, I agree "WTFamole" is a keeper! I had a c/s too and was far too doped up to take notice of the big bag-0-veins- dang it!
I say if you want to eat please feel free to eat it. Let the iron make you stronger, let the milk flow free-er
If you want to plant it under a tree then plant it under a tree. Let the roots grow deeper and the flower bloom larger.
If you want to throw it it then throw it out!
I'm really fighting the nausea just thinking about eating a placenta. I am not a vegetarian or a vegan, but I don't eat ORGANS. I don't do liver, I don't do tripe, I don't do kidney, I don't do entrails. Placenta seems to fall in the "offal" category, and for me, no thanks.
I think you've managed to nail 'em all. Might steal a couple of them from ya.
Who copyrights these days, anyway.
*swallows back gulp of fear*
i don't wanna seeee it! and i certainly don't want my husband to see it. it may turn him off humanity for life.
and was just talking to someone yesterday who keep the little cord stubbie when it fell off and put it in a frame. on their wall. and i heard another story of the stubbie falling off and that person's cat eating it.
i can't take it. although i'm pretty sure most animals eat their placenta. cows chewing cud, etc.
me - i'll probably just want some pancakes after.
My freaky midwife suggested I eat it. I suggested she leave the room, because I wanted to vomit when I saw it.
Could have been the weird drugs they gave me, but really.. It was pretty gross. I'll pass.
Okay, so kind of not related but I love telling this story: After I was done pooping out my daughter (no poop actually, I just like to think of myself as the "shock-rocker of moms") I pushed out all of the afterbirth business, right as the Man On Her Birth Certificate walked by. He gagged. It was awesome. I think of it and smile.
But yeah, no placenta eating here. I could do the encapsulated placenta thing, but I'm a very squeamish eater. I can't even eat cheerios if the bag hasn't been properly closed up with a clip and proper bag folding technique.
Eating it? Um. NO. But I did know a woman who did the planting with a tree thing and I do like that idea. Circle of life and whatnot.
instead of good n plenty
good n placenty
I am due at the end of the month and we are donating my placenta to an organization that will use it for skin grafting for burn victims.
The company is called Osiris Therapeutics if you are interested.
While I respect the rights of mothers to consume their placentas, throw it in a blender, or hell...open a lemonade stand with it and donate the money to March of Dimes, I was fine with filing it under "biohazard."
Call me a prude, but eating a placenta seems akin to self-cannibalization and the last time I checked, I had food in the fridge and my last name isn't Donner.
I'm feeling a touch ill now... I never looked down during either of my deliveries...
my babies come out looking really cute and unsquished. my friends are jealous and in awe of my babies nicely shaped heads. so i was a little distracted and didn't really pay attention to anything coming out after them
I wanted to have mine dehydrated so I could take the pills. For the same reasons listed above regarding PPD. I actually asked my midwife, who worked in a god damn birthing center, and she laughed at me.
As it turned out, I ended up with an emergency c-section 10 weeks early. Suffice to say, what to do with my placenta was the last thing on my mind. I still wish I would have thought to ask to take it home, if nothing else...to bury it under a tree or something. Not about to drink it :-)
I didn't even think about my placenta when I had my daughter. But my son was a homebirth, and we kept the placenta. It's in my freezer, still, a year later. I want to plant it under a tree, but not in THIS house because I don't want to be in this houe forever. So, in the freezer it sits. Maybe my mom will let me plant it in her yard???
A friend of mine pointed out that since the body rejects the placenta after birth it probably doesn't need it any more, right? I mean, if we needed the iron etc., it seems like we would reabsorb it or something.
I can't see the video but: "Placenta as food is just GROSS!"
My girlfriend had two drugless home births and her midwife made prints from her placentas on white paper. They were quite neat-- the veins made it look like a tree. Tree of life, I guess. But when I asked her about eating it, even she was horrified.
For me? Um NO. I donated my cord blood to the national bank (which everyone should do if they can) but that was as far as I got. A smoothie or pill sounds better than what I was thinking; I had visions of Mia Farrow in Rosemary's Baby.
And WTFamole is the best.
I have a history of depression and was desperate to avoid postpartum depression....
What's worse...eating your own placenta or ending up in a mental ward?
I ate mine. If you don't want to eat yours that's fine...but ENOUGH with the judgment. Aren't we always bitching about how mothers tear each other down?
I'm pregnant with my first baby, and am planning on having a home birth. When my midwife brought up this subject I was grossed the eff out at first.
But all she recommended was placenta encapsulation...which I really warmed up to. Taking a pill is so much less gross than cutting up and preparing or blending that thing, (and I don't even know what it looks like yet).
Couldn't even imagine serving up a plate of placenta lasagne. My delicate pregnant stomach can't take the thought. Ugh!
I haven't given birth before. I have a step-daughter, but none of my own yet.
I can tell you that I will NOT be eating or drinking or encapsulating my placenta.
I WILL be donating my placenta for stem cell research. I looked into this for my sister when she was pregnant. Looks pretty easy to do- fill out a couple of forms and the hospital can send it off for you.
Yeah, not so much into eating placenta.
Had my kids 17 and 12 years ago on the cusp of the internet. Who would have known you could take your placenta home?! ;)
As an avid gardener and someone who planted a tree for each birth I just may have taken the placenta home and buried it under each tree I must confess..
Sorry if this sounds ignorant, but is placenta like meat or is it like membrane, in which case I wouldn't eat it either, nor touch it, or even look at it. Is any of this kind of behavior really necessary? WTF??
Ok. I contemplated it- I still have my placenta from Ivy in my freezer (in the garage.) (I had a homebirth.)
My midwife wasn't into me eating it, I wasn't into eating it (it's a FILTER, you know?) (And I admit it does gross me out.)
I'm pretty sure I just want to plant mine under a tree. Until then, it's in my freezer. :)
Steph
I would not could not in a truck,
Would not could not (holy f*ck)
I wouldn't eat it with a fork
Even though i love the beef and pork.
ok, bad Suess there, but still. I am a MEATLOVER and not grossed out by much, but I would not eat my placenta. I did think it looked gross-awesome and I did take a picture of it. But that's the end of that.
Here's the picture, ps.
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2008-7/1316585/IMG_4075.JPG
i could plant it, but i think as a Jew I'm not supposed to consume any blood...i think that might mean my own too? other than like sucking on a cut or having a cut in my mouth. i think purposely ingesting my own blood like that would be a no-no...
I'm shocked to see the amount of judgement in this post and the comments. I've come to expect respect from this site because Rebecca has always been so great for reminding us not to judge eachother's life/parenting choices. We all slip every now and again, but this is quite sad.
Oh, Amber. I'm sorry I hurt your feelings. I just think the placenta eating things is... well... it's not for me! But HELLO! If you saw the video and my comments in this thread you'll see that I know plenty of rockin' people who do it - including blog readers.
I totally agree with Amber...seriously - you don't want anyone judging you for your parenting/lifestyle choices. This is just that...a different approach. I never asked anyone to eat/touch/look at my placenta (except my loving husband) so who are you guys to judge?
In defense of the others - I didn't find it judge-y, just an honest conversation - inevitably, some choices I make are gonna seem crazy to others and vice versa, it should be okay to be honest and have humor talking about it. I mean, it is a wild thing - my friend brought hers home in cooler and it sat in the fridge for a LONG TIME. More power to her, but to me, I kept thinking, would you keep your poop/pee/other objects and fluids from your body in your fridge? Ya gotta admit, its an unusual thing to do.
Sorry, but I don't find this post to be judgmental at all. It's an unusual thing to eat, whether you have the stomach for it or not. I mean you only obtain placenta through a birth, so getting it is a hard process in and of itself. You can't just go to the deli and ask for "my placenta on a ciabatta please!" If I would have known you could get your placenta encapsulated I probably would have done it. Would I expect people to be as into it as me? Nope. Different strokes for different folks people! Live and let live.
I think the placenta is a decoy for the baby- I'm going to eat one or the other.
Okay, and skeletal muscle? How's that not an organ? You eat meat? You eat an organ.
It's an awesome topic to explore the reasons people eat things. Health? Perception of normal? It can't be what IS gross, because yeah, a burger is at least as gross as the placenta.
That being said, I thought that my placenta looked just like a giant burger. I had to pick it up, flop it around and smell it- just out of physiological curiosity. Scientifically placentas are amazing, and I had to have a looksie.
After vaginally delivery my twins, I popped out the placenta (only one-- identical twins). The doc put it in a bowl and laid it on my tummy. I was beyond mesmerized and in love and awe and my hubbs and I poked and prodded. The membrane separating my children was tissue-paper thin. I suddenly understood how they could how each other through this wall.
I regret not having more time with it. Honestly. Would I have eaten it in a smoothie? No. Would I have encapsulated it? Had I known then-- absolutely. I had severe crazies, PPD and breastfed the girls. Could this have taken the place of Lexapro? Is that worth it? Without a doubt.
If I ever get knocked up again, I will mos def do it. Now let's all focus our energy on hoping that I never get the chance.
Seriously... nobody wants to donate their placenta for stem cell research? I mean how awesome is that?? Part of me can't wait to have my own kids just so I can do that.
placentophagist here! proud of it! i had it encapsulated i sincerely believe it helped my milk supply, energy level and ppd prevention. next time i am going to look into donating it since i have a stock of placenta pills in the fridge!
Ha- I like the crime-fighting placenta up there somewhere. Ultra bad-ass.
This whole thing is not as weird as we think it is. People have been doing this stuff for thousands of years, for a reason...before they had the nice neat encapsulation solution. (which I would totally have done, if I knew about it at the time)
I think I actually permanently scarred my stepdaughter for life with the sight of my placenta splooshing out of me. Bonus teen birth control measure? Yeah...I planned it that way!
I had my placenta dehydrated and encapsulated by a local doula who prepared it in accordance with traditional chinese medicine.
I am so glad I did!
I had severe "baby blues" and anxiety after coming home from the hospital and within 24 hours of beginning taking the capsules, I could feel myself coming back to "me".
I swear they made all the difference in the world for me and am really bummed I didn't throw what was left in the freezer. I am sure that they would have helped 6 months later when I developed ppd as a result of lack of sleep.
If I have another child I will definitely do it again.
I've had 4 homebirths. My midwife would inspect it and then kindly put it in a ziploc freezer bag and shove it in my freezer. Hell to the nah would I eat the nasty thing. Do you know how ginormous that thing is? Maybe I just produce ginormous placentas but anyways, no thank you. All mine have gone into the ground, under a tree ball. My last one stayed in the freezer for a couple of years before we got to it. It always looked like a bag of carne asada. Fer reals. When my husband finally decided to bury it (which is a big no-no btw--its considered bio-hazardous material and you have to pay to have it disposed), my neighbor decided to walk over to chit chat. Poor little old dude's eyes almost fell outta his head when he saw my husband chuck this big ball of frozen meat in the ground. Hehehehehehhehee
We received the best Christmas Card ever this year -
http://abbykins.blogspot.com/2010/01/best-card-ever.html
Apparently in the case of our friends - starting the new year with a Placenta is good luck!
No worries, Rebecca! I'm sorry if I wasn't clear enough, definitely not just referring you. Some of the comments are rather...harsh? :) You know how people can be online sometimes. That's one of the reasons I love your blog, you're always so aware of that.
In Asia, it's normal to bury or in chinese culture have your placenta soup... I didn't even LOOK at my placenta. I mean thank you, you did a great job but no...
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