WHAT! WHY?
Placenta Encapsulation. Those who have been involved in the childbirth world have seen a boom in placenta encapsulation interest almost over night. There has been a variety of articles, blogs, facebook posts circling around the subject - negative or positive - everyone seems to have their opinions and are fast to make those opinions known! So, before you get my opinion, let's look at some facts:
The act of consuming the placenta has been around from the beginning of time - assuming that in the beginning, as today, most mammals have consumed their placentas immediately after giving birth to their young. In fact, humans are one of the only mammals who do not regularly & consistantly consume their placenta after birth. In my own research, I have found that camels (and their kin; alpacas, llamas) and marsupials (pouched mamals resorb their placenta) are the only other land animals who do not consume their plancentas. My question is why? What do they know, that we humans do not? Are we too "civilized"? Perhaps, it is to cover the scent as not to attract preditors? But even those preditors at the top of the food chain concume their placentas.
Let's take a deeper look at the possible benifits of consuming the placenta. Some studies show that consuming the placenta in rats dramatically increased their pain tolerance. Though no studies have proven it has done the same for humans - though I wonder if ANY studies have been done on humans. Several surveys have been conducted which have found that 3/4 of the participants had noted positive experiences from consuming their placenta after birth.
Improved milk supply - scientifically proven
Helps the uterous clamp down and shrink to normal size
Lessens the amount of bleeding and the duration of postpartum bleeding
Increases energy
Helps fight off the "baby blues" and postpartum depression
Replaces iron & other nutrients lost at birth
