The Placenta is a beautiful organ that nourishes and protects your baby throughout pregnancy. It also plays an important role in the postpartum process and was divinely designed not only for your baby, but for you as well. The customary process of handling the placenta after birth is for it to be discarded as, “Medical Waste.” However, this beautiful “Tree of Life,” which nourished and protected your baby throughout your pregnancy, can continue to share it’s incredible benefits with you and your baby, long after your birth.
What is Placenta Encapsulation?
Placenta Encapsulation, or Placentophagy, is the practice of preparing your placenta into medicinal pills/capsules for consumption back into the body. Utilizing the medicinal properties of your placenta, helps to restore your Motherly balance in a natural and spiritual way. For many it can be a very sacred, powerful and healing process, allowing the placenta to continue to nourish and protect you and your baby after birth, as well as promoting a more pleasant postpartum recovery.
Why Placenta Encapsulation?
Most mammals (including primates) consume part or all of their placentas. Consider what a Momma Cat does after the birth of each of her kittens. She eats the sac that each baby kitten is born in and then consumes the placenta, immediately. Many women in diverse cultures throughout history have consumed their placentas for re-balancing their bodies after giving birth. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has used the placenta for its multitude of healing benefits for thousands of years. Your placenta contains your body’s own natural hormones and iron stores, which remain after birth.
While there have yet to be any official research studies conducted to prove the apparent benefits of consuming ones placenta after birth, many women report experiencing more energy, a bountiful milk supply, decreased postpartum mood changes (including postpartum depression), and less bleeding and discomfort after the birth .. overall, a more peaceful postpartum recovery period!
Benefits of Placenta Consumption
- Less dramatic hormone fluctuation, whereby reducing the chances or severity of postpartum depression and the “Baby Blues”
- Commence and encourage your bodies natural healing process
- Rejuvenate yourself naturally while feeling grounded
- Return of your natural energy level sooner after birth
- Have an immense openness to bonding with your baby, without many of the barriers created by postpartum depression
- Helps in establishing a healthy and abundant milk supply
- Reduction in postpartum bleeding
- Less postpartum pain/discomfort as the uterus is encouraged to return to it’s pre-pregnancy state
- Replenishes vitamins & minerals (specifically iron) lost during pregnancy and birth
- Protect your “couples” bond from after birth stress and strain
Interested in learning more about having your placenta encapsulated?
Read more about the encapsulation process and all of the options for the processing of the placenta.
Contact Doula Shelby Miller, for more information.