Yes, I Ate My Placenta

Warning, some of these pictures are graphic! This is a post about be eating and encapsulating my placenta for the emotional and health benefits. If you are not interested in this topic, just skip this post!

I have gotten several emails this week, asking if I ever ended up eating my placenta.  I wrote a post titled, Gonna Eat My Placenta, but never followed up.

Yes, I did eat my placenta.  I cooked and ate half of it and dehydrated and encapsulated the other half.

Part of the reason that I didn't follow up, is because I had dreams of writing an ebook about it and going into great detail, but the other part of me, was just waiting for the right moment.  I try to write when I feel really moved and inspired to write, but also, I think I was a little scared to announce this to the whole world, so I hope ya'll still stick around after this post!

Like, I mentioned in the first post, I had intentions of planting Penelope's placenta in the ground and planting a tree over it.  But life happened and I never got around to it.  Then I got inspired to eat and encapsulate it.  I asked around to several midwives I know and asked if I would still get all the benefits, after its been frozen for 12 months.  The consensus was yes, so away I went on my adventure.

Here is my placenta still frozen.  Just like the day of Penelope's birth.  I hadn't touched it or looked at it since her birth.  It was in our deep freezer for over 12 months. I doubled bagged, and wrote on the bag with permanent marker: Penelope's Placenta.  Has a nice ring to it, right?

And this is what my placenta looked like thawed and out of the bag.  I got a little creative and rolled the umbilical cord in a spiral, an ancient fertility symbol.

I had the intuition to prepare and cook my placenta on my own. I ate it later, with two other women, but I felt very strongly about preparing it by myself and creating a sacred space.  My husband took my daughter to the park and I had the house to myself for over and hour.  It was a very emotional time for me.  Upon touching my placenta, I was instantly taken back to the moment of birth.  When I held my daughter's umbilical cord in my hand, feeling the pulsations and waiting for it to stop before we clamped and cut.  I instantly started crying and was overwhelmed with emotion.  I felt very connected to my placenta and felt a great amount of gratitude for it, for feeding and nourishing my baby.  I also felt very proud of myself, for not only growing a baby, but growing an entire organ to nourish my baby. 

I remember thinking, hmm, my placenta kinda looks me.  It was thick and strong, it looked pretty healthy, but it looked like it had been through some shit.

I cut it up and sauted in butter.  It cooked up just like other organ meat.  For example, it reminded me of chicken livers.  There was no funky smell.

After I cooked it, I put it a container and later added it to some regular ground beef.  I added taco seasoning, mixed it all up and made myself some Placenta Tacos.

The placenta tasted a bit chewy, but other than that, it tasted just like tacos and was yummy.   There are a ton of different ways to eat placenta.  Just Google placenta recipes and prepare to have your mind blown.

Later, I encapsulated the other half.  Again, just Google placenta encapsulation and a ton of information comes up on how to do it yourself, how to hire someone to do it for you, etc.

I got these capsules from our local natural foods store.  There are contraptions you can buy, so you are not individually filling each one, but I didn't want to spring to buy one. 

After I dehydrated my placenta, I grounded it up in my food processor.  Some people like to crush it by hand with a pestle and mortar, I tried and it didn't work for me.  Then I used a knife and scooped the crushed placenta into the pill.

It took a long ass time. 

It yielded me about 40 pills.  If you encapsulate your entire placenta, the average is about 100 pills.

I read somewhere that if you save some of your placenta pills in the freezer, you can take them during menopause and they will help regulate your hormones and ease the transition.  So I saved about half of a cup in a glass jar, for one day when I am heading on into Crone town.

So why on earth did I do this?

I mainly did it, because I read that it helps fight off PPD.  And I was fighting off PPD, with a stick, every day for the first 18 months of Penelope's life.  I also read that it helps with your energy levels and your milk supply.   Two areas, I could always use a little help in.  I read that it helps restores lost nutrients, that have been lost from your body, during pregnancy, when they are directed to the growing baby.  And what was lost in the blood from childbirth.  If we do have baby number 2, I want to make sure they are not jipped in the nutrients department.  Did you know that first borns are smarter and healthier, because most mothers do not replenish their nutrient stores before getting pregnant again with the next child?

I know eating your placenta is not for everyone, but I highly recommend encapsulating it.  If you have any questions at all, please don't hesitate to ask me and I will help anyway I can.