I really can't recommend it enough. I did it after my first birth and then trained to do it for other women, and I'll do it next time as well. My reason for doing it was simply because I wanted to support breastfeeding a bit and also because I have a history of severe mental illness in my family (dad and his relatives), so PND was a big concern. I had a placenta smoothie and then had capsules made from the rest of it. I really felt like it made a huge difference in terms of my energy levels and my mood. I started to feel really anxious around about day 3 or so, not just the usual baby blues which everyone goes through, but like intrusive thoughts, like I couldn't stop thinking about all the ways my daughter might die and feeling really anxious about it and not able to get those images out of my mind. It was really horrible. My capsules arrived day 5 pp and the change was dramatic. It really helped my mood improve. The intrusive thoughts went away within a week or so. I had so much more energy and really felt like I could cope again. I had a lot of issues with breastfeeding and a baby who struggled to latch, so had a lot of supply issues. My milk didn't come in until day 6 (a day after I started the capsules, which I think probably helped). In the end, I didn't feel like they helped with BF because I only BF for 10 weeks, which wasn't as long as I'd hoped, but my daughter had a lot of latch issues that persisted even on bottles, so I don't think there was much that could have helped anyway. But I really do believe they probably saved me from postnatal depression/anxiety. My best friend went through a really severe bout of PND shortly after that, and I'm a huge believer now that it's worth doing everything you can to prevent it if you think you might be at risk because it's an awful thing to go through. I also became anaemic after birth and I think they probably helped a lot with getting my iron levels back up and helping me come off the iron tablets, which weren't very nice.
It's not for everyone. They do have a certain smell/taste when you burp, but I wouldn't say more so than any vitamin. If you've ever burped and tasted your pregnancy vitamin, it's no worse than that. The placenta smoothie tasted great. Just like a smoothie. You never would have known it was anything else. It's not cheap. About 150 quid most places in the UK, maybe higher in London or if you need someone to travel a long way to reach you. But considering how much money most people spend on crap for a new baby that they'll probably not even use once, I think it's worth it. You might even consider asking friends and family to chip in as a gift for when baby arrives if you feel you would prefer that to having more baby clothes, etc. Basically, I'm a big believer that you may not know that you'll need it until your baby arrives, and it's better to have it and not have needed it (but get some of the nutritional and other benefits), than to experience PND and wish you had, so I think it's a good insurance policy.
If you haven't already, check out the IPEN website. There's lots of information in PE there and you can find a specialist near you.
https://www.placentanetwork.com/
