Placenta Encapsulation & Post Partum Health

Your placenta is the incredible and amazing organ that grew and supported your baby and your hormones for forty weeks.  The afterbirth or placenta is often thrown away and has the stigma of being considered “medical waste.”
Most cultures revere the properties and energy of the placenta, often considered medicinally beneficial and protective of mother and baby, before and after birth.  Just as it nourished and acted as the “little brother” to your baby during pregnancy, it can continue to do its job, when carefully prepared for ingestion after birth. Your placenta can ensure a plentiful milk supply, faster recovery, increase maternal energy levels, and prevent postpartum depression.

Testimonial from

While our culture generally treats the mother’s placenta as “medical waste” and disposes of it in the same way that we dispose of used syringes or surgical byproducts, many cultures of the world understand that the placenta has important medicinal properties that can be beneficial to a new mother following childbirth.  After all, the placenta with its “tree of life” (see photo at right) served as the primary nourishment for the baby and also as the primary regulator of the mother’s hormones throughout pregnancy.  Below you will find basic information about placenta encapsulation.

We hired Kayti Ricker to prepare Emily’s placenta after Miles was born.  Kayti is a doula here in San Diego and we had heard very good things about her.  She sent us detailed instructions prior to the birth so that we would know what we needed to do to save the placenta for encapsulation.  Some hospitals may be surprised if you say that you want to save your placenta, although the midwives at UCSD are more familiar with the practice.  They kept the placenta in the hospital refrigerator for us until we were discharged.  At that point we picked it up and took it home along with Miles!   We kept it in our refrigerator and the next morning Kayti came to our house to begin preparing it for encapsulation.  Kayti brings all of her own supplies with her, so the only thing you need to provide her with is a kitchen sink and some counter space.   After cleaning it, steaming it, and cutting it up, she left it in the dehydrator, returning the next day to grind and encapsulate it.  Placentas vary in size, thus the number of capsules varies as well, usually between 60 and 120.   Our placenta produced 71 capsules, enough for the first three to four weeks postpartum.
While we obviously have no way of comparing how Emily might have felt in those first weeks after Miles’ birth if she had not taken the placenta capsules, we can report on what we did experience.   Emily’s energy and emotional state remained surprisingly constant, with very few moments of the “baby blues” that so many friends have described to us.  She also had an abundant supply of milk and very little bleeding, with her uterus quickly shrinking in size.  Based on our experience, we would absolutely recommend placenta encapsulation to others.  And for those in the San Diego area, we would definitely recommend Kayti. 

 

From Placenta Benefits.info:

What if you could avoid the baby blues...
The placenta contains your own natural hormones and is perfectly made for you, by you. Experts agree that the placenta retains hormones. Reintroducing them to your system is believed to ease postpartum and menopausal hormonal fluctuations.