Originally published for Del Mar Birth Center
As a midwife, I often am asked the question, “What do you think about placenta encapsulation?” Consuming the placenta aka placentophagy amongst mothers in the postpartum period has become a recent trend in the last 15-20 years. However, it’s reported that placentas have been used in traditional Chinese medicine since the 1500s. (1,2)
For those of you who don’t know about this phenomenon, placenta encapsulation is the process of steaming and/or dehydrating the placenta and pressing it into capsules to be consumed after the birth. Why would a mother want to consume her placenta, you may ask? Firstly, some would argue that humans are one of the few mammals who do not consume their placentas, so there must be some nutritional benefit to the healing and postpartum period. Plus, there are iron stores and hormones that are in the placenta that can be potentially beneficial during this time. It has become a popular method to help prevent postpartum depression and increase milk supply, especially if you have risk factors.
Postpartum depression is one of the most common complications in the perinatal period and that’s only what’s reported (only half of all cases are reported). (3) It can happen out of the blue or one can be at risk for experiencing it. These risk factors include a history of postpartum depression experienced after previous births and/or anxiety or depression experienced prior to pregnancy. Other risk factors include but is not limited to high stress, lack of social support, a traumatic pregnancy or birth experience, and recent stressful life events i.e. moving, changing jobs or a death of a family member or close friend (4) Feelings of anxiety and depression can be triggered by the hormonal fluctuations experienced in the immediate postpartum period and negatively effect a woman, her breastfeeding experience and bonding with her new baby.
Some risk factors for low milk supply include having a history of this complication with previous children, previous breast surgery, premature birth, maternal obesity, pregnancy-induced high blood pressure as well as simply not breastfeeding enough or right away. (5)
Until very recently, I believed the purported benefits were enough to sway my decision in favor of placenta encapsulation Also, from what I had heard the only ‘risk’ was feeling no difference in mood or energy and if anything it was simply a placebo effect.
But then there was a recent article that came out by Sarah Hollister RN, PHN, IBCLC, who found that most of her clients with low milk supply issues were also consuming their placentas. While there are a lot of hormones in the placenta that could be beneficial in smoothing out the emotional ups and downs after the birth, there are also a lot of pregnancy hormones that could inhibit the milk let down hormone, causing low supply issues.
Going back to the idea that we are one of the few mammals who don’t consume our placentas could be more to do with survival than nutritional. In the wild, it’s important for animals to hide the smell of childbirth to protect their young from predators. If there is a nutritional benefit, we have to take into account that animals’ guts process foods differently than humans. Also, animals consume their placentas in the raw and immediately after the birth, whereas humans ingest in small doses over weeks and months after the birth. So we might be missing the nutritional benefit, if there is, when we consume it after being processed over a longer period of time.
So what do we advise? Full informed consent of benefits, risks and alternatives.
One alternative to the timing of encapsulation is to wait until 2 weeks after the birth when your milk supply is very much established and potentially the placenta pills won’t affect your supply.
The other option is to make your placenta into a tincture, which you wouldn’t use until at least 6 weeks after the birth. This could be helpful for any hormonal shifts i.e. weaning, entering menopause or even for your child entering puberty as it also has his or her tissue in the placenta and technically matches their constitution and would work well. Placenta tinctures has not been around long enough to do enough studies but perhaps interesting to look into as a possible alternative to synthetic or animal-based products in hormone replacement therapy, which is on the rise for aging men and women.
Then an alternative to ingesting the placenta in any fashion altogether is to bury the placenta. In our western culture, we think of the placenta as medical waste and it’s disposed of after the birth in a biohazard bag. However, in many other cultures around the world, the placenta bears a great significance to the pregnancy and baby and this it is honored by having a proper burial for it.
In New Zealand, the Maori people bury the placenta on tribal land to help the child establish a personal and spiritual connection to their native roots. In Indonesia, a family may bury a paintbrush or a pen with the placenta to bring artistic talent to the child. (6)
It’s also a really good fertilizer given that it’s a life source for making a baby it will help make beautiful rose bush.
So, there is not a right or wrong answer with this topic. As always with the midwifery model of care, we want you to have true informed consent in by looking at the risks, benefits and alternatives in order to make a sound decision for you, your body and family.
For more information about the who, what, where and why of placenta encapsulation, please visit: Find Placenta Encapsulation
Resources:
1. “Placenta Encapsulation Methods.” Find Placenta Encapsulation, findplacentaencapsulation.com/.
2. Savadove, Bill. “Eating Placenta, an Age-Old Practice in China.” Inquirer Lifestyle Eating Placenta an Ageold Practice in China Comments, 25 June 2012, lifestyle.inquirer.net/54285/eating-placenta-an-age-old-practice-in-china/.
3. “Women's Health Care Physicians.” Screening for Perinatal Depression - ACOG, 1 May 2015, www.acog.org/Clinical-Guidance-and-Publications/Committee-Opinions/Committee-on-Obstetric-Practice/Screening-for-Perinatal-Depression.
4. Mogielnicki, Juliana. “Postpartum Depression: Who Is at Risk?” MGH Center for Women's Mental Health, 20 June 2005, womensmentalhealth.org/posts/postpartum-depression-who-is-at-risk/?doing_wp_cron=1524515167.9608330726623535156250.
5. LaFleur, Elizabeth. “Low Milk Supply: What Causes It?” Mayo Clinic, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 22 Sept. 2015, www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/infant-and-toddler-health/expert-answers/low-milk-supply/faq-20058148.
6. Holburn, Kirrah. “Placenta Traditions and Beliefs.” Placenta Wisdom, 4 May 2016, placentawisdom.com.au/blog/2015/08/10/placenta-traditions-and-beliefs/.