February 25, 2011

Placentophagy....are you kidding me??

I've written several posts here on placentophagy, or eating one's placenta, and I'm always amazed at the various resulting comments. OK, I know that there are people out there who strongly believe in the placenta's hormonal restorative qualities and all that, but come on....would you really want to eat a part of your body?

I was just reading an article on a moms' website about a new mom who ate her placenta because "it didn't seem right to merely throw it away."

I just don't get this placentophagy thing at all. So some assert that eating your placenta can help stave off postpartum depression. Personally, I think that resorting to eating a placenta would make me depressed. Yeah, I get that if you've experienced PPD before, you'd do just about anything to avoid having to endure it again. However, there are plenty of options out there other than eating a chunk of human body tissue. Options such as counseling, anti-depressants, support group therapy, yoga, exercise, acupuncture, and many more. No matter that Tom Cruise aparently prefers his placenta medium-rare, I would never even remotely begin to consider such an option.

4 comments:

Crimson Rambler said...

I suspect there is some sort of extrapolation here from the observed fact that animals consume the placenta (probably so as not to cue predators that there's a helpless newborn nearby)...
and my (former) husband informed me solemnly, before our first child was born, that women in delivery had to have their hands tied down to PREVENT them from eating the placenta. He knew. Yup. Because Coach had told the boys so, in their high school health class.
There is just more weirdness out there...than one can imagine.

Andrea said...

Ouch. Personally, if someone told me that hanging upside down from an oak tree while shaking a chicken bone would have prevented or cured my PPD, I would have done it. When I was pregnant with my second son, I decided to do placenta encapsulation to help with my PPD. I don't think it made a difference but it certainly didn't hurt. And I wouldn't judge another woman who is desperate the avoid the hell of PPD.

Meg said...

Everyone is different in how they want to do things. Just like I would rather not take anti-depressants to deal with my ppd, but go for it for others. I just rather not put that into my body. The placenta is one amazing organ and I rather not throw it away like its such a useless thing. I did not encapsulate my son's placenta, but it is currently sitting in my freezer waiting to be planted with a tree. I say whatever floats your boat. If a woman wants to consume her placenta in hopes to ward off ppd I say go for it! Whatever works, right?

Musti said...

I like the points you raise. I find that people are having to resort to solutions that can sometimes sound odd. But as Meg states everyone has different solutions. But i find that the most important help one can get is their own ability to cope through using some good old pure strength!