I just received an email from my childhood friend in Hong Kong (She is one of my international followers of my Gather site). She is currently pregnant, and she is due in the end off August, so we have been sharing this whole pregnancy experience.
Well, today my friend had been to her birthing class, and at some point the instructor mentioned that they do not give out the placenta in Hong Kong. My friend has lived in Hong Kong for less than a year, so she does not know all of the customs yet.
My friend asked the instructor, why anyone would want the placenta, and the answer horrified her.
Apparently it is quite common to eat the placenta in China.
So how do you prefer yours? In Lasagna, boiled?
The email made me wonder, and I found an article at about.com that shed some more light on the situation.
Below is an excerpt from The Amazing Placenta, which can be found at About.com by Robin Elise Weiss, LCCE.
Then comes the practice of placentophagia, eating the placenta, is also practiced in some parts of the world. There are even meal like recipes for cooking placentas, including placenta stew, placenta lasagna, power drinks with blended placenta and others. Though some mothers have been reported to eat placenta raw.
There are many reasons listed for eating the placenta, including it helping stem postpartum depression and it supposedly helps to contract the uterus after the birth. We know that many animals eat their own placenta, including as a means to hide the scent from predators.
In our modern world this may seem barbaric and some have even said that this could spread HIV/AIDS or Hepatitis. While this is very true if people other than the mother consume the placenta, normally it is only the mother partaking of the placenta.
In Chinese Medicine, the placenta is known as a great life force and is highly respected in terms of its medicinal value. However, in this field it is not cook, but rather usually dried. To dry a placenta you would simply dehydrate it in the oven, then using a mortar and pestle grind it up. From there you can mix it with food or ingest it within capsules. I have actually known one mother who did this drying technique. It is my only personal experience with placentophagia.
Did you do anything special with your placenta after giving birth? Or have you heard of any placenta stories?
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Comments: 48
I figured this post was going to end this way, and because I am not apart of that culture, of course I think its GROSS. But anyway, I'm sure someone likes it or else they wouldn't be eating it right?
I know Henry, this is defintely a cultural thing.
I don't think i could even consider eating anything that came out of the inside of my body~
I would have to agree with you Priscilla.
I agree, and yet, we eat calves' liver, hamburger.....
Liver is one of the worst things a person can eat. I have never eaten that!
Ick, no, that kind of made me sick to my stomach. But, my husband did meet someone on a job once that named their kid Placenta.
Really? Wierd!
Poor kid!
All I did was check it out and hold it. I wanted to know what mine would like; the placenta says A LOT about the nature of a pregnancy. All of the truths lie in it. And, then it went off to pathology to be checked out.
I never even gave much thought to it, but I do know that some people put a lot of thought into the placenta. I think I was too tired to even think about it at that point.
No, I knew of it but I think I'd have to refrain...
I guess it really shows how cultures can be very very different:)
I think I am speechless.....and that doesn't happen very often! LOL I've never heard of the practice and certainly would not participate!
Eeekkkkk!!!! I've never heard of that!!! I have no idea where mine went, lol. I didn't look. Yuck!
Yuck is the right word I guess! But if you ask me it's yuk to eat monkey brains or kidneys like some people do!
I've heard of this custom but ummm not for me
I'lll passon this one.
I have heard that several companies will now freeze the placenta in case you need the stem cells later in life.
eeeew that is sick. I never heard of that. But I would never eat it. yuk.
It definitely is a custom thing. I'm glad our customs are not like this one. I remember being a young child and my grandmother serving Cow's tongue for dinner. I was speechless. Needless to say I had something else.
That's definitely not something I would want to try. I didn't even really look at mine. Carl did, though. Elliott had two knots tied in his cord, PLUS it was tied around his neck. The doctor said he had never seen anything like it, so he took all of the stuff around and showed the other doctor that was there, plus all the nurses and med students.
a friend of mine's son had his cord around his neck 5 times! (it was a really long cord). He was also born in the caul. :)
I was done using it, so I didn't pay attention what they did to mine when it was over. I know if I had to eat it; I'd go childless just to skip that part. Sorry, kid...
That's disgusting
I almost threw up.
Dogs eat the placentas when they have puppies. But then, dogs also eat cat crap out of the litter box and lots of other gross stuff.
Cat's usually eat it as well~
I was using some sort of hair treatment can't remember for sure what it was, but my daughter pointed out that it was made with placenta. I quit using it. I think that I would have to be pretty darn hungry.
Ew. I'm glad it's an Eastern tradition and not a Western one.
Okay, I am NOT even going to read this, the title got to me as it is.
Hmm - I'd never heard of this practice. I could see drying it and using the powder in a soup or a stew:) Why not there may be some wisdom to it and I tell you with all this poisoneaous deadly crap we are eating - I bet ground up placenta would be just fine.
People who prefer margarine over butter (mar being one molecule away from plastic) - see my point?:)
Lasagne - nope - that ain't happening:)
ROFL Rose!
You know, most mammals will eat the placenta, or part of it. I have heard of other humans eating it, but it's not a common practice in Western culture. I don't know if I would be able to do it if I had kids.
I've heard of people planting a tree with their placenta after a child is born, but this is definitely new to me.
Cats have this custom.
I've seen a program where a couple did a dinner party celebration of the baby's birth by serving recipies containing the placenta. I couldn't stop watching. Fascinated and repulsed at the same time.
I always tell my preggo friends not to invite me to placenta eating parties.
I've always wondered why humans didn't eat the placenta. Maybe that's why Americans always have such difficulty with post partem depression.
That is so weird. I can't believe someone would eat that. No offense but that just makes me sick!!
I have read/heard of some people in the U.S also trying it, but I didn't get the impression it was a high number. I don't think I could bring myself to do it!
I dehydrated mine, ground it, and capsulated it. The hormones in the placenta can help prevent post partum depression, and are safer for nursing babies than if the mom takes anti-depressents.
I've heard of this. Is it very expensive to have done or did you do it yourself?
I did it myself. I borrowed my midwifes capsule-maker, bought some capsules from vitamin warehouse, then cut it into strips and dried it out in the oven (lowest heat possible, for a few hours), ground it in a coffee grinder, and made about 500 capsules
This sort of reminds of an old Saturday Night Live skit ... Placenta Helper.
I read the title and I almost threw up. Oh boy, I was hungry after reading a recipe article earlier and now my appetite is gone again. HA HA HA
On a few mothering boards that I am a member of there are some women who are planing to eat or drink the placenta (one lady blends hers up to make a 'juice' and her and her husband will drink it over the course of a week or so. A few other mothers plan on either making a 'tree of life' painting with it (which is actually kind of neat, but I don't think I would do this) or planting it/burying it.
I will not be doing anything with mine - I don't even care to view it. I will be much too interested in my child than in that. I never saw the one that nurished my son and I am glad I didn't.
Am I alone in thinking that this sounds somewhat akin to cannabalism? I shuddered at the idea of "henna and placenta" hair treatments. I am not going to eat it.
I've heard of doing this. I don't see an issue with it--certainly not worse than many of the other things that people routinely ingest (and almost never think about).
I don't intend to have kids, but even if I did, I think I'd skip out on this one.