I talk about placentas in my Childbirth Class (and at my book club and bunco too). My friends were grossed out that some people eat their placentas. That does sound a bit gross to me, but drying and encapsulating it seems palatable.
I really think placentas are amazing! Your body makes a new organ to support your baby and then discards it after it is no longer needed! I have seen moms make placenta prints, bury their placenta, eat their placenta. I think it is all great.
Well I finally found something that someone did with their placenta and will admit, making a Teddy Bear out of a placenta, THAT is weird.
WOW!!!! Disturbing….
Um….
*shudder*
Well, it does seem strange at first (and I have never met anyone doing anything like this!) but consider this:
Placentophagy (from ‘placenta’ + Greek φαγειν, to eat) is the act of mammals eating the placenta of their young after childbirth.
The placenta contains high levels of prostaglandin which stimulates involution (an inward curvature or penetration, or, a shrinking or return to a former size) of the uterus, in effect cleaning the uterus out. The placenta also contains small amounts of oxytocin which eases birth stress and causes the smooth muscles around the mammary cells to contract and eject milk.
There is also a school of thought that holds that placentophagy naturally occurred to hide any trace of childbirth from predators in the wild, though the amniotic fluid not similarly ingested by the mother seems to discount this theory. Most placental mammals participate in placentophagy, including, surprisingly, herbivorous ones.
I totally think pacentophagy makes sense and would encapsulate my placenta if I have another baby. But make a teddy bear? THAT is weird.
Ummm…okay. Hmmm…I guess I’m rendered speechless! Hahahaha!
::picks chin up off the floor::
i think i’ll stick to burying ours under daffodils. lol
Never been big on keeping the placenta thing:) But I do remember on the birth of my third child how I was amazed by the connection between me and my little guy. They brought him up to me before the cord was cut and I remember almost wishing that that connection would never be cut:) Of course, I don’t really wish that, but there is something cool about the connection between a mother and her unborn child.