Eating your placenta

[Annpan]

As a male man....

As opposed to???

I never saw mine after the birth either, then I never saw much, I was paying attention to the wee person that they had just handed me... and screaming at them to give me pain killers before sewing me up...TMI

I had a friend who was desperate to eat hers but the hospital wouldn't let her take it. I had another friend who wanted to ebay mine...euugh.

[Thurston Garden]

As a male man....

As opposed to???

A female woman, or any of the various shades in between.

[Martin]

I remember people who'd sit in class ferretting around in their hooter - and then produce a vast grolly which they'd admire for a while - and then pop into their mouths.....................

[Bonniegirl]

Ewwww! Martin!!

I dunno whats worse, placenta or bogies!

[Millymollymandy]

Thank you for making me feel more sick than the placenta discussion.

[mrsflibble]

I've never liked the idea of eating the pacenta. mind you, i'm not to keen on eating liver. not for what it is and what it does, i just can't stand the taste.

'm also not too hot on the idea of a lotus birth either (where baby is left attached to the placenta until the cord drops between 3 and 10 days).

each to their own, live and let live and all that jazz.

[the.fee.fairy]

The lotus birth thing - I thought it was dangerous to keep the baby attached to the placenta - something to do with the blood draining from the body. How does this one work? or am i wrong?

[QuakerBear]

Many, many Moons ago I saw a TV programme on this. The woman fryed it before eating.

I'd have to say though, take a good look at the placenta, and prod it abit. Then cook it how you would cook the meat it most resembles.

Can you all stop talking about bogies, it's nearly lunch time and now I feel gross.

[Martin]

it just seems so deeply unnatural - it's something the body has expelled, why on earth bung it back in again? (in a cooked state, which is hardly "natural")
Far as I'm concerned this fad is about as sensible as the schoolboy balancing a pulsating grolly on his finger, and then consuming it with devilish glee!

[Annpan]

a pulstating grolly... now that is something...

I read on a parenting forum (babycentre, holistic parenting... possibly) about lotus birthing. There was discussions about velvet lavender sented bags to put the placenta in while the cord dried up. I am not sure but I'd imagine there would be benifits for premature babies???

Eating your own placenta isn't that unnatural surely? seems reasonable enough to use all those left over nutrients...no?

There was a study done into nose pickers in Denmark (I think) the results were that nose pickers are much healthier in later life... they linked it to them being more open and explorative with their own bodies.

[Jarmara]

I read somewhere that eating the placenta it supposed to help/stop post natal depression. I still wouldn't want to eat it though! but if you want to why not.

[the.fee.fairy]

I read on a parenting forum (babycentre, holistic parenting... possibly) about lotus birthing. There was discussions about velvet lavender sented bags to put the placenta in while the cord dried up. I am not sure but I'd imagine there would be benifits for premature babies???

Hmmm...it might be different now, but when i was born, i was 9 weeks early and one of the first things the doctors did was cut the cord right down to my belly button to attach lines with fluids and antibiotics (now i've just got an odd bellybutton, i don't think it did me any permanent damage).

It just confuses me!!

[Annpan]

It was an uneducated guess , I have no idea if it would be good or bad for a premature baby. However they are making new medical advances all the time so they might not do the same thing now as they did to you. I have 2 friends (both girls I used to work with) there babies were each born 15 weeks early. One baby lasted three days before they decided to switch off the machines, the other baby survived and was in intensive care for 6 months and sadly, is severly disabled. But God knows that if those babies had been born 20 years ago there wouldn't have been a hope in hell for either of them.

sorry, a complete digression from the subject.

So is there anyone on here who has tasted placenta? I wonder what it tastes like.

[the.fee.fairy]

Blimey, that is early!

The earliest we've got in our family is my cousin, who was 10 weeks early - we're convinced that its a genetic thng. none of the babies born to my mum's family have been on time!!

Hopefully, medical advances will be able to save more of them. But, i have to say that there must be a cut off point - a point at which the doctors decide that it really is not feasible for the child to have a good quality of life. I'm saying that from the point of view of being an early baby myself. I am very very lucky in that all i've been left with is a couple of muscles missing from my thighs, dimpled kneecaps and weak valves in my ears. It could have been a lot lot worse!

[Annpan]

I think the current medical opinion is that a baby born before 24 weeks is not considered 'viable' which is so sad and horrid. So both of my friends were only 1 week past that date. But yes, new advances are happening all the time. Skin to skin was the biggy when E was born, and it is also encouraged with premature babies. I have a friend who was nearly 2 months prem, he now has a big problem with physical contact, due to the fact he was hardly cuddled in the early weeks So I guess they are finding out all of this stuff and giving each baby a better chance of a healthy life.