If you've encapsulated your placenta yourself...

[MrsStutler]

I got ripped off last pregnancy, the doula I hired to do the encapsulation took my $160 and my organ but I never received the capsules. To avoid this situation again I want to do my own encapsulation this time. I've been researching it and it does seem relatively simple to do.

My questions are:

1. How necessary is the capsule filler? I know I can get the filler and capsules for about $30 on Amazon but is it really worth the extra money, or should I just do the capsules by themselves?

2. What size capsules work best?

3. I don't have a dehydrator, but I've read you can use the oven on a super low setting. Anybody try this? How did it work out?

 

[Sam Pearson]

What do you mean you never go the capsules? What happened to them? I"d be most unhappy if somebody took my child's placenta and I didn't receive it back in some form.

You can fill the capsules by hand - my friend's dh did this and he also self dried the placenta on very low in the oven with the door propped open slightly with a wooden spoon (to effectively make the oven even cooler - the right temp to dehydrate without setting the oven so low the gas went out). It's not hard to do but the drying takes time and filling the capsules is fiddly.

 

[fionar]

Ooh, stalking this thread. We'd initially planned to have the placenta done but can't afford it, so I'm now looking in to doing it myself. Curious to hear from others who have done it or know about it.

 

[teacup22]

Also following this. I need to do my own as there isn't anyone here that does encapsulation...

 

[MrsStutler]

What do you mean you never go the capsules? What happened to them? I"d be most unhappy if somebody took my child's placenta and I didn't receive it back in some form.

You can fill the capsules by hand - my friend's dh did this and he also self dried the placenta on very low in the oven with the door propped open slightly with a wooden spoon (to effectively make the oven even cooler - the right temp to dehydrate without setting the oven so low the gas went out). It's not hard to do but the drying takes time and filling the capsules is fiddly.

Pretty much just that, she came and picked up my placenta but never sent the capsules like we had agreed on. She lives in a city a few hours away, but was the closest person I could find willing to do it. I got excuse after excuse about the package getting returned in the mail, she had a lot of births going on etc. then eventually she stopped returning my calls and emails. I've filed reports with the better business bureau but they couldn't get a response either. I can't afford a lawyer so we just sucked up the loss and I won't be trusting anybody else with my organs again.

Thanks for the info! Our oven has a "warming" setting that goes at about 125 F so I don't know if that is low enough or not. I think I might spring for the filler, seems like filling all the little capsules would be a lot of fiddling around!

 

[Sam Pearson]

Pretty much just that, she came and picked up my placenta but never sent the capsules like we had agreed on. She lives in a city a few hours away, but was the closest person I could find willing to do it. I got excuse after excuse about the package getting returned in the mail, she had a lot of births going on etc. then eventually she stopped returning my calls and emails. I've filed reports with the better business bureau but they couldn't get a response either. I can't afford a lawyer so we just sucked up the loss and I won't be trusting anybody else with my organs again.

Thanks for the info! Our oven has a "warming" setting that goes at about 125 F so I don't know if that is low enough or not. I think I might spring for the filler, seems like filling all the little capsules would be a lot of fiddling around!

Oh, so sorry you had your placenta stolen. That is dreadful. Maybe something went wrong and she didn't have the ovaries to fess up...as in maybe it defrosted and went bad and became unusable...or she got it mixed up with another or something. Still, the least she could do is tell you where it ended up.

You can use a regular steamer to do the steaming. You can use a regular food dehydrator to dry the placenta...then you'll have one to use for food afterwards. It takes around 2 days to do it on one of those. Otherwise you want your over on 110 degrees so the wooden spoon in the door should bring yours down to that temp. I reckon hiring or buying a capsule filler would be the go and you can always resell it afterwards or use it to make herb pills or whatever.

If you do the over method this means they won't be ready in time if you want them to take for after pains. The way around that would be to keep some fresh to consume over the days after the birth. To do this cut approx 1/2 placenta into pill sized pieces and lay them out onto a tray in the freezer. Take a few each day with a glass of juice, just like a pill or if you are wanting a faster effect hold the piece under your tongue or in your cheek before swallowing. You can then dry the rest for encapsulation. Alternatively, you can hide the placenta pieces by blending up into a nutritious smoothie.

Personally, as a Lotus Birther I'd have a lot of trouble cutting any part of my baby's placenta off with a knife but I'd go for it if I was bleeding or had bled a lot or felt unwell - I'd just get my hubby to do the cutting for me as unlike me he's good with things like that and I'd rather do that than make a trip to the hospital or doctor with a newborn.

There are also DIY Placenta encapsulation kits but they seem as expensive as getting somebody to do it.

 

[bassdesire]

I think the kit is worth it. I paid $275 to have it done professionally, though. The last thing I'd want to do taking care of two kids and a hubby is dry out and grind up placenta lol!!

You just use regular empty clear capsules. They have them at vitamin stores, online, or at natural food stores.

 

[Kota]

I use 00 size capsules, they seem to be the most common, and you can certainly hand fill them, it takes longer, but isn't difficult at all, you'll probably end up with slightly more pills by hand filling as well as they don't get packed as tightly.

Otherwise you'll need a decent coffee grinder of some sort to grind the dehydrated placenta down into a powder, or you could use a pestal/mortar, but again, that will take longer.

Oven dehydrating on low, with a wooden spoon in the doorway to keep it ajar for about 8hrs, or a food dehydrator if you have access to one.

 

[NaturalMomma]

Yes you can use the oven. Put it on the lowest setting and keep the door open a bit. I use size 0 and you can fill them by hand, I always do.