Suggestions on what to do with the placenta if I don't go for encapsulation?

[schroedingersdodo]

I'm planning to bring the placenta back home after the birth, and my doula said she can make a smoothie with it. I suppose the smoothie won't use all of it (otherwise we would have huge amounts of smoothie left, I guess).

I thought of having the rest of it dehydrated and encapsulated, but it is very expensive, and I don't see the point of having someone taking the placenta away once it's home, then bringing it back in capsules for about £150 (I'm already paying for the doula, which is not cheap, and I'm considering paying for a private room at the hospital - which also costs a small fortune -, so I want to avoid spending more money).

What can I do with the placenta? Loads of smoothies? (what is the recipe?) Cut it in pieces and freeze them separately, so I can use them bit by bit? What can I do with the pieces?

I'm sure some people will think this is a bizarre thing to post, but I'm serious. If you think a placenta smoothie is weird, google "lotus birth" to see what people can do with placentas.

[QuietNinjaTardis]

Why are you asking here if you can google what to do with your placenta? This is the third time I've written my post as I'm not sure what you're asking exactly? If you want to eat it then google will surely be more helpful than mnetters?

[WitchesTit]

The placenta as a a waste product, once the baby has finished with it. So I dont even want to know what weird things people do with redundant parts of their insides.

Would you eat your appendix once it was removed? there must be some nutritive value to it, after all.

[schroedingersdodo]

Oh dear, people must be having a bad day today.

Quietninja, I usually feel like telling people here in MN to goggle stuff instead of asking, but I never do it because I think it's rude. But thanks for the suggestion, I think.

Witches, if you don't want to know, why are you posting here? That's a funny comment by you.

And keep the weird useless replies coming, if it makes you people feel better.

[FruitSaladIsNotPudding]

I'm planning to encapsulate mine myself, with the help of my doula. Neither of us have done it before but it's pretty straightforward.

Pm if you want to chat about it - can't face the judgey posts on here!

[mignonette]

Why not do a Damien Hirst and make an artwork out of it?

[seeker]

Whwt would you do with th dehydrated and encapsulated placenta?

[mignonette]

Launch it into space via catapult with Indolent Knight and a famous baby care expert sitting on it?

[seeker]

Oh, sorry. I though encapsulating meant setting in a block of Perspex to make q sort of ornament!

[QuietNinjaTardis]

I wasn't trying to be rude schro I just didn't think you'd get much help here. I got a bit confused with what you were asking and thought google might be more useful in this case. I expect this reply is as weird and useless as my last one though.

[TigerFeet]

Why does anyone post on MN when they could just google ?

Possibly because they want ideas and experiences from other MNers?

I can't answer your question OP, as it's not something I know anything about, but just wanted to say that I don't understand why anyone would think you shouldn't be asking.

[BoysBoysBoysAndMe]

I didn't think anyone did anything with the placenta anymore?

Every days a school day!

It's really quite big. Are you going to drink the smoothie? What do you put in it? I genuinely don't know, hope you don't think I'm being rude. It would taste rank surely?

[AarghComet]

You can hire the kit to do the encapsulation yourself for not very much money

[jinglesticks]

I know someone who's dh fried hers after a home birth. He just sneaked off to the kitchen with it I think, then brought it back on a plate, fried in butter. They said it tasted like liver.

[mayhew]

Some of our mums have a more spiritual bent?.and want to honour the placenta rather than eat it. Some muslims consider it part of their baby's body and feel it should have a respectful burial. Others dig a hole and plant something living on top of it that will look nice around the time of the baby's birthday.

[Jakeyblueblue]

I saw a program once where they hired a lady whose business involved doing stuff with placentas. You can call her in post birth and she did allsorts with them.
Aside from the smoothie making and encapsulation she also did a placenta print. It sounds hideous and i thought it was going to be grotesque but actually I thought it was really beautiful when I saw the finished product framed. It actually looks like a lovely tree.
Obviously you'd need to do this before you started dicing it up
Oh and by the way, I let them take my placenta away with ds and I regret it a bit. I wouldn't want to drink it or anything but I do have the upmost respect for the job it did and I think next time I might ask to at least look at it or dispose of it in a nicer way than in a clinical waste bin.
Hope you get some good ideas OP

[givemeaclue]

Put it in the clinical waste bin.

[givemeaclue]

Then have a glass of champagne, much nicer

[doctordwt]

We bought a tiny plum tree and put the placenta in the pot when we potted it up. Used a big enough pot so that 3 years on, it's still in the same pot, presume placenta is completely gone by now - once we're settled in a forever home, we'll be planting the tree permanently.

So it's DD's plum tree, nurtured by the same placenta that nurtured her - maybe one day she'll have it in her garden. Lots of rather grisly photos of the potting up that she can pull faces at one day, ha ha.

Have had a BUMPER crop from it already - plum trees clearly do well on placentas :)

[doctordwt]

Jakey - it was fascinating to look at properly and have a prod at. And huge. Quite a crazy experience really. THAT'S ONE OF MY ORGANS OMG.

Wouldn't have fancied eating it or keeping it in any form, but liked the idea of using it as fertiliser - a job it was ideally suited to.

[farrowandballs]

for DS's we dug a hole in the garden, threw it in there with an acorn and some glitter and planted a tree on top. I sang a song I wrote and everyone got drunk. Lovely.

[Bunbaker]

I know someone who fired hers and ate it. She said it was like liver. The funny thing was that she was a vegan.

I find the whole idea of eating ones placenta a little stomach churning.

[Bunbaker]

She fried her placenta. Doh!

[TimothyTumblespring]

My old antenatal yoga teacher buried hers in the garden and planted an apple tree over it.
I was quite scared of mine, it was a lot bigger than I was expecting! DP took a photo of it for posterity which he occasionally produces to frighten his teenage relatives!

[morethanasong]

I met someone who made some kind of tonic with it ... I can't remember what she called it though. Apparently you could then take a few drops of it at a time and it was supposed to help with pnd. I wish I could remember the details because it sounded interesting.

[FunnysInLaJardin]

I can't think of anything worse than a placenta smoothie tbh, not only is it a meat smoothie, it's meat from your own body.

Planting it in the garden with a tree on top sounds much more civilised.