Placenta Recipes!?

I remember being ravenous after giving birth. Well, not so much right after the fact, more like days afterwards since I had to have a c-section. When I finally regained my appetite, I wanted all the “forbidden foods” that I avoided for nine long months: raw sushi (especially spicy tuna rolls loaded with mercury); a platter of runny, soft cheeses; deli meats; hot dogs filled with nitrates; and margaritas.

Placenta? Not so much. It sounds icky, but a small but vocal group of women swear that placentophagy (the practice of eating placenta) has health benefits such as preventing the baby blues and speeding postpartum recovery. The placenta is allegedly chock full of hormones like estrogen, progesterone and oxytocin - which helps stem bleeding after birth by causing the uterus to contract. Although there are no human studies to substantiate this, placenta eaters swear that eating an organ so rich in these hormones really can prevent the baby blues.

Luckily for us humans though, breastfeeding stimulates the production of oxytocin and pretty much accomplishes the same thing in terms of mood benefits and uterine contractions. And where breastfeeding fails, Haagen Dazs comes to the rescue with none of the messy kitchen prep and cannibalistic cuisine.

Seriously though, who does this? And why? Is there no Ben & Jerry’s or Krispy Kreme Donuts where these women live? I don’t mean to diminish the overwhelming feelings that accompany the postpartum blues and postpartum depression (been there, done that.) Although I didn’t have it with my first, I definitely got the weepies and the blues with my second. Personally, I think its kind of humorous for us as a society to even pathologize these very natural emotions and label them “postpartum depression.” As far as I’m concerned, how else is a human being supposed to feel after pushing out a bowling ball sized human out of a very small orifice or being cut open and having all her insides rearranged to yank out a baby? Either way, you’ve got swelling and stitches in all the wrong places, you’re terrified of pooping for fear of ripping yourself open again, your breasts are engorged and the nipples are cracked and bleeding and you’re so sleep deprived you are actually hallucinating. Nothing you’ve read or been told prepares you for the physical ordeal and recovery that is labor and delivery, and the average person doesn’t have a full time night nurse, nanny and cook while we lay in bed and recover.

So it baffles me that any new mom would even consider eating her placenta. First of all, who wants to cook anything after giving birth? Most women are understaffed and do all the housework, so why add more work? And who wants to cook placenta? Yuck! Definitely, not my idea of comfort food. In fact, the thought of it makes me very uncomfortable for several reasons.

Contrary to the picture posted above, you really cannot run out and buy Placenta Helper so the idea of chopping up the placenta and making it palatable seems overwhelming. Luckily for the more intrepid souls, there are no shortage of placenta recipes that pop up when you google them. I found recipes for Placenta Cocktails (a little V-8, ice and lemons), Placenta Lasagna, Placenta Stew and even Placenta Pizza. For the more squeamish, there are kits available that allow you to dehydrate your placenta like beef jerkey than grind it up and encapsulate the powder into 100 or 200 pills to be taken daily. Again, all of this sounds extremely time consuming and of questionable value since all that cooking probably destroys most of the nutrients and hormones present in the placenta. And when you’re done eating the placenta feast, then what? Is that supposed to sustain you emotionally for the next 18+ years?

If anybody out there has sampled their own placenta, please post a comment and let me know how it tasted. Confront my skepticism that it made you feel better than a box of Godiva Chocolates would have. If you cop out and say it tasted like chicken though, I’ll know you’re lying!

LINKS:

MSNBC Health Article

Placenta Benefits Info