The Placenta Cookbook

The Placentophagia Fad

NYMag

For a growing number of new mothers, there’s no better nutritional snack after childbirth than the fruit of their own labor

Jennifer Hughes’s placenta was delivered ten minutes after her first child, just before midnight on March 31. It was on the large side, with a liverish texture and a bluish tinge; it measured nine inches in diameter and weighed a pound and a half. Placentas are considered biohazardous waste by the medical Establishment and are usually disposed of accordingly. Some hospitals send the afterbirth in formaldehyde to a pathology lab for analysis before it is carted off by a tissue-disposal service; others toss it out with bloody miscellany in special containers.

But in the birth plan that Hughes brought with her to Beth Israel Medical Center, she specified that she wanted to keep her placenta, for cultural reasons. Complying with New York State health regulations, which says that hospitals “may, at the request of a patient or patient’s representative, return a healthy placenta for disposition by the patient,” the hospital allowed her to take it home, and even packed it up for her.

In some cultures, it is customary to bury the placenta and plant a tree over it.

Hughes had other plans. She was going to eat it.

This has been a personal question of mine for quite a while now, why would anyone what to do this?
Well the topic hasn't crossed my mind, in a convenient time to be answered until just now. For a while I wondered, is it a religious statement, a cultural heirloom or just a new age health solution.

According to Kristal, the first recorded placentophagia movement in America began in the seventies, when people residing in communes would cook up a placenta stew and share it among themselves. “It’s a New Age phenomenon,” he explains. “Every ten or twenty years people say, ‘We should do this because it’s natural and animals do it.’ But it’s not based on science. It’s a fad.”

Well that's one party I will not be attending anytime soon. But I would like to ask, has anyone here at ATS done this or knew someone who has done this?
Don't get me wrong I find this completely disgusting, but I am in no way condemning this practice or will persecute anyone for partaking in it. I am just terribly interested in finding out more information on this from a personal perspective. I can't help but feel why anyone would do this just for medicinal benefits. There has to be an underlining motivator here somewhere???

Thanx, AB

Are you kidding me? I was in the room for both my daughters births, slightly light headed and the joke of the attending nurses. No way anybody but vodoo folk would use this.

At first I was thinking, "Man, the last thing we need is a placenta-thread".

Then I started digging in to it, and it looks like it is going to be an irresistibly interesting subject. Check this out...

I Regret Eating My Placenta

But in my case, it was a terrible idea...

Shortly after my first dose of two pills, I felt jittery and weird. By the next day, after just eight placenta pills, I was in tabloid-worthy meltdown mode, a frightening phase filled with tears and rage.

This lasted another couple of awful days before my husband suggested that it wasn’t postpartum mommy madness finally making its appearance, but the hormone-and-goodness-knows-what-else-filled placenta pills.

Fascinating, right?

I do not know anyone who has eaten the placenta, no. However some relatives of mine buried their placenta under a tree and performed a little ritual over it. Though it strange, but to each his own I guess.

I would never consider eating it, have you seen one up close? My husband took pictures off my daughters placenta after the delivery, and posted them on his facebook. I thought that was a bit much, but eating one really takes it to a whole new level.

They say it's good for you, but they say a lot of things and frankly i'm just not buying it.

reply to post by brandiwine14


Funny side story, my first love was in the delivery room to give birth to our daughter, our first child. He was an architect also but not very bright because he had no idea the placenta was so large. He hit the floor like a ton of bricks thinking it was some mutated evil twin! Afterward he told me he though the placenta was part of the umbilical cord. He never realized the size of it. Well you know what they say about our first loves. . .

The tree thing seems weird yes, but also very spiritual for me. I would not have an issue with that at all.

reply to post by Bybyots


It doesn't surprise me at all because I always thought the placenta was a filter of sorts, on top of its main functions. All those bad things it keeps from the baby now people want to eat them. Again, I don't get it!

The best part of that link was, ". . . once it comes out, it should stay out!"

Animals only do it because it keeps the stuff that could lead predators to the den at a minimum. I don't think that grazing animals do it.

There's something seriously wrong with people who eat their own body parts. I consider this a mental illness.

Restricted
There's something seriously wrong with people who eat their own body parts. I consider this a mental illness.

reply to post by MadHatter364


we bought a little tree and planted the placenta under it....wouldn't eat it though!!!

I kept my second son's placenta in an ice cream bucket in the fridge freezer for many years just to gross people out. It worked!

reply to post by AnteBellum


I am very brave with food and I am game for trying unusual stuff, but this is a bit too much even for me.
I went to read more and found this:

"Placenta can be eaten raw"........I closed the tab after those first five words.

I know some people say that all mammals do it, but animals also lick their private parts and we choose to use water and soap.

igloo
I kept my second son's placenta in an ice cream bucket in the fridge freezer for many years just to gross people out. It worked!

Why did I not think of that? That's even better than naked bathtub pics for fueling teen angst

Eating placenta? What are we? Cavemen? Gee whiz
I consider this some form of cannibalism or Satanic ritual.

And why on earth would someone bury it under a tree??

Did I miss something?

Educate me, please.

reply to post by AnteBellum


With all the healthy food, vitamins and other supplements available,there's no need for this anymore.

It would be like watching an episode from Hannibal.
"Steamed Placenta in Merlot. Voila! This is my design. "



Only you are the person preparing it, chopping it up, cooking it, and finally eating it.

I also tend towards calling this some form of cannibalism, and I never understood people who did it.

Thanks for sharing though.

reply to post by Rainbowresidue


It really is kinda creepy though isn't it!?!

I hoped to get an answer from someone who has done this, but I think after the responses (myself included) that will probably not happen now.
I was hoping someone would reply, "It gives the new born child magic abilities!" or something ridiculous to the like.
I still can't believe people that partake in this. . . ritual, fully do it for the health benefits.

Oh, well thanks for joining in!

AB