Though I've been mildly obsessed with birth since I was 22 years old there are several things involved in the birth process that I put very little thought into.
My placenta was one of them.
I can honestly say that I was never going to do anything with my placenta other than throw it away.
I've seen that thing, I've been to a homebirth...it's disgusting. The most disgusting part of birth.
What else was there to do with it besides throw it away?
Eating it sounded bizarre, placenta smoothies sounded disgusting, burying it and planting a tree where it was buried just didn't sound like "me".
So...into the garbage it was going.
Once pregnant I heard about placenta encapsulation... and I was intrigued but decided it was probably too much effort to arrange to have it done and not something I was THAT into and moved on with my life, still fully convinced that I would just be throwing the damn thing away.
I mean...I'm not THAT much of a crunchy hippie that I was going to ingest my own placenta. Homebirth or not we have to draw the line somewhere right?
Or not.
San Francisco makes being a crunchy hippie just way too easy and when I brought up placenta encapsulation at our group prenatal appt this week I AM NOW FULLY ON BOARD WITH PLACENTA ENCAPSULATION.
Oh yes guys, I am going to eat my placenta in the form of pills.
It's going to be awesome.
Know what else I'm going to do with my placenta????
That's right...placenta art!
OMG I'm such a fucking hippie I can hardly stand it.
BUT MY MIDWIVES DO ALL OF THIS FOR ME.
I don't have to "arrange" anything. I just give birth (like that's the easy part). And BAMN, placenta art and little encapsulated placenta pills are just presented to me.
How could I NOT eat my placenta and make art with it?
It's obviously a no-brainer.
But IN ALL SERIOUSNESS, my midwives had some amazing things to say about placenta encapsulation, most important of which was the energy they give back to you because the placenta is like a big ball of iron and after birth...you lose a lot of blood. Makes sense that iron would give you energy no?
There's some thoughts and theories, all unproven because no one wants to put money into this kind of research, about the hormones that are in the placenta helping to combat postpartum depression as well...but I'm on the fence with this part. For me it's all about the iron!
Ironically, Cornfed decided to write about the same thing today, head on over to her blog if you want a first hand account of placenta encapsulation and their magic energy rejuvenating properties.
Anyone else having fun with their placenta and doing something interesting with it?
