Second Time Mom Reviews Placenta Encapsulation Experience

Natalina is one of the clients that I have held dear to my heart since working with her a year and a half ago. She was looking for extra labor support for the birth of her second son. Her first son was born by cesarean and Natalina wanted a vaginal birth this time (VBAC). She interviewed many doulas, myself and Courtney being some of them- she hired Courtney as her primary doula and I was the backup doula. Due to last minute circumstances I ended up with Natalina while she labored without her husband who was on planned Navy deployment. We bonded as two women working together for this heartful attempt at a vaginal birth. Natalina experienced a challenging labor and cesarean birth- everyone came out okay and healthy but it was a whirlwind of a postpartum experience for her; I was honored to be by her side.

I was so happy to give the gift of Natalina's placenta to her, she needed all the extra help and love she could get while she recovered from birth and bonded with her sweet boy. Here is her side of the placenta encapsulation story:

"I first heard about placenta encapsulation reading an US weekly (or some other embarrassing publication) when January Jones spoke about how she encapsulated her placenta. My first thought was utter disgust, what the heck do these hippies in Hollywood think they are doing?!

Once I had my first son I became a bit obsessed with the birth community and anything VBAC related. Article after article kept popping up about placenta encapsulation. I quickly learned that while some people ingest it in raw form (still a little too granola for me), there were ways to ingest the organ that were a little, for lack of better words, less icky. At first I was only interested in the pills, but through more research I learned about the multitude of benefits the tincture offered, and even found that it lasts so long you could enjoy the benefits throughout more than post partum. I’ll be honest the first few times I took the tincture it was a bit difficult but I knew I was giving my body what it needed to heal from 9 months of growing someone as well as bringing them Earthside. I grew that organ, it’s part of me, it was made to grow and protect one of the people I love more than life itself, how powerful and beautiful that the organ lives on to provide my family with protection and love.

I ended up in a CBAC for my second birth, I was separated from my baby for almost three hours, and I feel that I owe a lot to my placenta (outside of it’s obvious role). My son is 18 months old and still nurses 3 times a day. I made so much milk in the beginning (one of the many benefits) I was able to donate over 100 ounces! I felt better (emotionally and physically) and NEVER had an issue with production. Honestly, even if it’s a placebo, which I don’t see how it could be, how cool to recycle something that gave you and your baby so much? I won’t bore you with the statistics about how consuming your placenta can do wonders for your mind and body, I will just say that I wish I had done it with my first and will DEFINITELY be consuming it if I’m lucky enough to have another child."