I Regret Eating My Placenta

you guys should sit down, break placenta, and talk it out

most mammals eat placenta -> it must have nutritional content or some benefit -> humans could get nutritional content or benefit from placenta?

idk, I'm dropping it

argument from (possibly) false premise
modus ponens
etc

you pick that placenta back up, young man

this is not a barn

NB I very very seriously looked into becoming a midwife and it's not something I have entirely ruled out doing in the future. Natural midwife-assisted childbirth is something I've very interested for a variety of reasons. I do not necessarily plan to ever eat or cart around a placenta in my lifetime. However, these are both things sometimes practiced by people seeking alternative birth experiences rather than hospital-based fully medicalized childbirths** which is something I wholeheartedly support. As such, I feel that it's sort of important to keep an open mind (or at least not be a total jerk about) about related things that I might not fully understand especially when I'm reasonably certain that at least one ILXOR reading this has made similar choices and migh be hurt by some unnecessarily harsh and uninformed words.

** Which are not necessarily always negative things, obv.

11111111000000000011111111122226

I have a friend who worked with a midwife in NYC for quite a while! I should drop her a note asking about this, or bring it up when she's in town.

sorry my cat decide to post

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA - I was like, what the?!

And yes, this is one of those hot button issues for me becuase of the countless times I've heard really poorly informed people go off and freak out about things just because someone suggests doing them in a way that goes against the grain. I wasn't calling anyone in particular as asshole btw. It can just be really frustrating at times.

lol jacob I was going to ask if u were having a stroke

Haha. I wondered if that was a response to "at least one," where JS was suggesting that the real number was 11111101002202566 ILXors.

might be hurt by some unnecessarily harsh and uninformed words.

E, I don't think anyone here has said any of this shouldn't be done, only that it fires against our own sensibilities. That applies to a lot of aesthetic, political, or religious ideas that many people have and it's not really something to take personally -- I would think doing something like eating a placenta or carrying it around is part of a larger life sensibility and people disliking that doesn't mean they dislike the person.

I do stuff people consider dumb every day. I'm willing to hear why those things are dumb, but if they don't hurt other people and I still think it's ok, then it's ok.

btw acting like we're less informed just because we haven't done something is... misguided

If you're going to eat the placenta, I think you should eat it before birth. Like eating grapes straight from the vine.

I see on xp that you're not calling out anybody in particular, but: My comments about placentophagia are not uninformed. I am well informed about the lack of scientific support for any health benefits. If somebody wants to eat it for spiritual reasons (or bury it under a tree, which is actually kind of sweet), or decides that since there's studies showing that it's bad to eat placenta, then more placenta to them.

I'm also comfortable challenging people's decisions not to vaccinate their children even though that might go against the beliefs of some ILX parents.

WAIT:

or decides that since there's NO studies showing that it's bad to eat placenta THEY MIGHT AS WELL EAT IT

morelike midwtfery

Part of me thinks that the ilxor who is making/has made that decision already knows that a healthy and reasonable discussion would absolutely take place on the parenting board, and while ILXors are super cool as a rule it's just a lot to expect of the general population to not either have some lols or have some grossed out reactions

I think we all know how we *should* behave, and that we should be able to talk about it like grownups...I'd like to but my inner 5 year old sometimes takes over... but no-one's really being too crazy dickish here and I think overall we're doing okay, right?

but I totally get E, that you're bringing a lot with you into this discussion, and I'm glad that we know a little more now about where you stand

not that anyone should have to explain themselves, but for me being really new to this stuff it helps me understand it better instead of being a 5 year old "EWWWW GROSS "

It was just the tone, MH. I said myself I couldn't imagine sitting with around wtih a bowl full of placenta for days. I guess they were meant to be jokey but some posts came off to me as really jerky instead and I thought for a minute how if I'd made similar decisions I'd probably be really angry at people for being so mean about stuff they probably know very little about. Maybe I overreacted because, as I mentioned earlier, I have a vested interest in related topics. I don't know.

most mammals eat placenta -> it must have nutritional content or some benefit -> humans could get nutritional content or benefit from placenta?

yeah, the question mark is key, imo. given the first two (and there's evidence that the placenta does provides nutritional value and perhaps even some unique benefits to the animals that eat it), the question becomes "why wouldn't you eat the placenta?" i'm not saying, "you should do it, period." i'm asking, "what's the argument against?"

idk, i'm dropping it...

like, i think the only arguments i've ever heard are that "it's gross" or "it isn't normal", neither of which is particularly convincing.

Also, if it makes you feel any better ENBB, I have pretty strong opinions about a lot of things done in the name of "natural childbirth" and I don't share them because parenting threads where people are talking about their childbirth choices is not the place to do that. BUT if somebody started a thread linking to an article about a new trend in having babies in the woods alone with no assistance at all (I'm making that up in an attempt to give an example that is not going to hurt anybody's feelings, so if that's a real thing somebody wants to do, I'm sorry) and the article and the thread took a slightly mocking tone, I would assume, as here, that the thread was an okay place to share my opinions.

I said myself I couldn't imagine sitting with around wtih a bowl full of placenta for days

that shit wouldn't last 5 minutes in most houses; it's like Lays chips in human organ form

once you placenta you can't stop

Honest to god craving 7-layer dip due to that post
xp

Or perhaps a Doritos taco from Taco Bell.

see now there's a way to eat placenta

7-layer dip! now we're talking

J, if there were studies showing it were harmful then I'd agree with you. I am generally all for evidence-based health practices and outright reject things without hard science behind them. However, I think there's a high probability that the lack of studies on the topic are related to the poor way in which women's health related issues have been handled and been given the shaft historically (nevermind non-traditional women's health practices) and that's not OK. For that reason alone, and until there is scientific evidence to the contrary, I'm willing to support a woman's choice to chow down on as much of her homemade placenta as she damn well pleases without condeming that choice.

lol I don't know about in the woods but there's definitely a whole unassisted childbirth movement which, yes, is a wholle other topic and something I don't understand either.

this lotus thing seems bad in that banking stem cells from the umbilical cord is known to be a good thing and you lose that possibility, other than that, feel free to run around with whatever stuff attached to you that you want

But I'm not going to come over and see the baby until that thing detaches and you air out the house.

"homemade placenta" somehow manages to be the most sinister phrase on this thread

I would imagine etsy has something to say about that

I prefer takeout placenta tbqh

BTW, my mom's first comment when I explained this article and that it involved placenta dried and ground up and put in capsules was, "That sounds expensive!"

otm, mom. otm.

Oh, and just so it's clear and nobody assumes I think otherwise, people who don't vaccinate their kids make me irrationally angry. I don't even read that thread anymore because I can't handle it.

fwiw, I am pro-breastfeeding, think circumcision is unnecessary in the western world unless for a legitimate medical need or religious prescription but not all that harmful, and there are too many unnecessary c-sections

Well you are correct in all those beliefs. Imo, of course.

I don't think any of those things are really that controversial anymore though I guess most Americans still choose to circumsize boy babies? Be interesting to know what rates for that are now, actually.

fwiw I wouldn't criticize anyone for doing the opposite on any of those, though. there are just some issues where both sides fall well within norms. people do get up in arms about all of these!`

I wouldn't criticize anyone for doing the opposite of them either in most situations.

I was kind of taken aback last year when I visited my friends in the hospital with their newborn and they said something to the effect of "Yeah, I kind of wish they'd advised me to walk around a while or squat more before advising me to get a c-section, in retrospect, but on the other hand he's a really big baby"

Yeah well, sounds pretty typical tbh.

and at six months, he's 20 pounds and 28" long

hell of a placenta

guys i totally understand on some level that birth is a huge spiritual event and there is a deep inherited human response to that, and to treat the birth and afterbirth as magical events. plus there's blood! blood magic is strong magic. from that level placentaphagy and lotus birthing are comprehensible -- as is the recent practice of banking umbilical blood for its magical medical properties. precious, precious is the blood!

but otoh! there is also a v understandable human sense of uneasiness with all that blood and flesh and gore and a weird sense of taboo around. i personally look on the miracle of childbirth as a crazy horrorshow and that definitely informs my response to the stuff ppl are doing with placentae. thank god midwives exist and are happy to aid and revel in its visceral mysteries, because i could. not. handle it.

I'm about to be in the middle of this, because I am assisting the midwife in delivering our baby, which at first seemed crazy to be because I have no training or knowledge of childbirth at all. But the midwife assured us that in the event of something going wrong or something that I can't handle that she and her assistant will be their the handle anything and a hospital is 5 minutes away. We were told the baby will be coming in probably 10 days so I'll see just how strong I am to help bring the baby into the whole. Weirdly enough, I'm not freaked out or nervous at all. I do understand why people see the placenta as being more than merely afterbirth, I do, but most important to me is our baby. I just don't want to dispose of the placenta in a trash can and treat it as if it's waste. I'd rather be a little symbolic about it and have something else be born from it, like a tree.

I can totally see that, sounds pretty cool.

Is it even legal to throw in a garbage can, or does it count as medical material and have to be taken somewhere?

I like the idea of a tree. Rose bush would be good, they go NUTSO with a bit of good compost.

If i get pregnant I'm going to throw my placenta on the ice after a Blackhawks game.