Placenta Encapsulation. AKA eating your placenta....!
If the title of this post made you gag, you're not alone! Lying on my good friend and acupuncturist, Gianna's table weeks before giving birth, I asked her if there were things I could do to be sure I recovered well and avoid the massive hormonal mood swings that can rule the post partum period. "Eat your placenta!" she responded chirpily. "What? That's disgusting. You've got to be kidding," responded moi. And then she went on to tell me that ingesting the placenta is the quickest way to replenish all of the iron and hormones that your body loses during childbirth. And it's the best source as it is literally tailor made to your body as it was made by your body. She also pointed out that all other animals, and we are animals after all, eat their placentas.
Still nauseated by images of frying up an organ of mine and eating it, I was somewhat intrigued, and approached the possibility as I have everything throughout pregnancy and recovery-- with an open mind and like an experiment. So I got a referral from one of Gianna's post partum doula pals. Sara of Mommy Feel Good looked pretty and normal on her website (call me shallow, but it seemed encouraging that she looked like one of my pretty friends and not like a hippie dippie scruff). And I started feeling more ok about the whole thing reading that she takes the placenta and dehydrates it into capsules-- just like vitamins!!?-- which seemed more palatable. She has also been written about in Time magazine and prepared January Jones' placenta, if hot press sways you...
Days before going to the hospital, I decided I'd rather have the option than not. So for $300, I contacted Sara who just told me to bring a small cooler to the hospital (you need your own to transport the placenta) and just to call or text her from the hospital when it was ready for pick up. You have to have a Hep C test when you "check in" to the hospital and it must come back negative before they'll release the placenta.
Let me tell you, I did endure a few eye rolls from the nurses and felt awfully squeamish taking the pills for the first time BUT I had from what I understand talking to other women, an incredible recovery. I had energy, plentiful milk supply, and only two 5 minute waves of tears! I can't say it was due to the placenta pills but I can tell you that if I have another baby, I will certainly do it again. Why not?