What Are You Doing With The Placenta???

[KandyKinz]

So what are you all doing with your placentas????

I'm planning on making a placenta print then it's gonna hang out in the freezer for awhile... We are planning to buy a house in the first year or two after baby's born and I would love to bury the placenta and plant a tree on top to honour the birth of baby but I don't want to do that where we are living now, I'd much rather plant in where we will be in the years to come as baby grows up.

 

[DazedConfused]

Yay I made an interesting thread

I'll plant it because of OH's cultural needs lol

 

[Farie]

We're letting the m/w dispose of it ... I have a feeling she'll plant it under a tree!!

 

[mrspeanut]

We're letting the midwife get rid of it too. I never really thought of doing anything else with it...will be interesting to see what people are going to do with theirs

 

[KandyKinz]

Here in Ontario, Canada the midwives are legally not allowed to take and dispose of the placentas as they are not licensed to transport human organs (though some will....). So if you have a homebirth you're pretty much stuck with it and also by law you are not allowed to dispose of it in regular household trash...

And if you have a hospital birth, they will disintegrate it though I have known a few women who have requested to bring there's home.

 

[stardust599]

Mines will be going in the hospital trash or whatever they do with it lol xxx

 

[summer rain]

Bury it in a relatives garden; even if we're moved by then the garden in the new place is paved over....

 

[Pixxie]

I'll ask to have a look at it but then I'll let the midwife get rid of it with the hospital waste xx

 

[DazedConfused]

I've heard lots of weird and wonderful things getting done with placentas these days so I was wondering if you guys had anything you wanted to do culturally or personally with it? Or just medical waste with it?

My OH is Maori so culturally we "have to" bury the placenta under a tree.
It has to do with the Maori belief that the earth came from a woman (or something) so women who are pregnant are tapu (sacred) and have a lot of mana (respect, spirit, life force, status, etc etc) as she carries the mana of herself, her partner and her child within her. So the placenta is seen as a sacred part of this. Whenua ki te whenua is the name of the ceremony, sort of meaning returning placenta to the earth as the word for placenta and earth are the same!

 

[summer rain]

In my faith its recommended to bury any body parts, since the placenta is an organ this is one of them.

 

[LauraBee]

I was actually thinking about eating mine... I've seen other animals do it, plus it's supposedly highly nutritious a what not. Only problem will be that I'll probably forget to ask for it while at the hospital.

 

[Pixxie]

I was actually thinking about eating mine... I've seen other animals do it, plus it's supposedly highly nutritious a what not. Only problem will be that I'll probably forget to ask for it while at the hospital.

Don't take this the wrong way but you are a brave woman indeed! xxx

 

[LauraBee]

Ahah, thanks. To be honest, it would be very typical of me because I'm that weird girl that shocks everyone 'cept her friends 'cos they're used to it

Plus, it means it's another thing I can say I've done and then use it as a "I'm more experienced/openminded than you" tease

 

[xgem27x]

I didn't know you were allowed to keep them!! Ahhh that sucks, I had TWO of them aswell!! Ahh wasteful!!! xxx

 

[KandyKinz]

You learn something everyday! I didn't know women were allowed to keep them either till I went to midwifery school....

LauraBee: Apparently placentas have lots and lots of iron and are especially good at getting hemoglobin back up post delivery... And placenta is also suppose to help with post-partum depression. How are you planning on preparing it???? Are you gonna encapsulate it or are you gonna cook it (I have several placenta recipes....), but
encapsulation definitly seems to be the more common method used among those who consume their placenta.... But as someone said above... You are a braver than I and obviously much more open to new experiences then I am cause I do not think I could eat mine....

 

[superbecks]

I have known someone to make placenta pate before!

I can't get my head around eating an organ, would you eat your liver or kidney?? I think you're brave xxx

 

[Pixxie]

I've also heard it's really good for you but I just don't have the stomach! xxx

 

[bky]

I mean to plant mine (is it mine or my baby's? Ours maybe...)with a tree, but it's still in my freezer! I haven't even had a look yet because I don't want to thaw it until I'm ready to plant.
(Having a hard time deciding on what tree...)

 

[xgem27x]

I am actually amazed people have kept their placentas and are planting and eating them and stuff! I honestly never knew people did that, I thought it was only done it like African tribes!

Phoebe mentioned it on Friends, I just thought it was a joke lol! xxx

 

[DazedConfused]

I am actually amazed people have kept their placentas and are planting and eating them and stuff! I honestly never knew people did that, I thought it was only done it like African tribes!

Phoebe mentioned it on Friends, I just thought it was a joke lol! xxx

Lol! I'm doing it for "tribal" regions. My OH's culture believes in the burying of the placenta to return it to the earth.