• Vegetarian and eating your placenta? What you need to know

    Date: 2010.10.31 | Category: Post-partum | Tags: ,,,,,

    The placenta is a wonderful organ that plays an essential part in nourishing a baby before birth. Can a placenta be just as useful to mothers, after the baby has finished using it? Placentophagy, as consuming ones own placenta is also called, has many benefits. It can stop post-partum hemorrhage, something which is particularly useful for those having an unassisted homebirth, and contains many hormones that replenish the mother’s body, increase her energy levels and make her feel great. But what if you are vegetarian, and the thought of consuming any kind of meat, even your own, grosses you out? Are there any ways to make eating your placenta more palatable?

    As a life-long vegetarian, I have a huge aversion to meat. While I believe that being vegetarian is often healthier than eating meat, and I don’t like the thought of killing animals myself much, I am not an ideological vegetarian. I just don’t enjoy eating meat. As a small child, I vomited the few times that meat accidentally appeared in dishes served at friend’s houses because the taste physically made me sick. As a teenager, I was fed up with being different from everyone else, so I did try eating meat for a while. I was embarrassed to tell my friends I was vegetarian because I did not want to be the “weird one”. It did not last more than a few months, because trying not to vomit while eating chicken, cow, or fish simply wasn’t worth the hassle.

    A placenta is definitely meat. It looks like meat, and it tastes like meat. But when I heard that eating your placenta has the potential of preventing or stopping post-partum hemorrhage, I became very interested and immediately knew that I wanted to give it a try. Then, there are the other benefits of placentopagy. Some people say that consuming your placenta can help prevent post-partum depression, increase your energy levels, and make you feel good. A placenta contains oxytocin, the famous “feel good hormone”, and other hormones that contribute to post-partum recovery too. A dislike of meat would not stop me from seeing if those rumored benefits would help me, too. The only question was – how can I consume my placenta without actually tasting it?

    There are a few ways of making this happen. Personally, I opted to cut the placenta into small pieces. I washed some of the blood out. After that, I simply swallowed pieces with water or juice, much like a pill. I never tasted the meat at all. The other option is to make a placenta smoothie with soy milk, red fruits like strawberries, cranberries, or raspberries. Friends who have done this report that they could not detect even a slight meaty taste. The third possibility is encapsulating your placenta. This would also eliminate any chance that you will taste meat.

    If you are vegetarian and you want to eat your placenta but you are worried about the taste of meat, you don’t have to be. It is entirely possible. I don’t regret eating my placenta, and I would warmly recommend it to any post-partum mother. After my unassisted homebirth, I felt energetic and euphoric, for months. I have no doubt that eating my placenta played a large role in that.

    What are your thoughts on placenta eating?