anyone eaten the placenta?

[warthog]

it's supposed to stop pnd but there hasn't been any research.

anyone had direct experience?

I actually love liver, and cook it quite often - to DH's dismay

NO to eating bloody bits expelled during childbirth though.

My grandad had something that looked like a nutmeg in a plastic jar on top of his fridge. When I asked him what it was, it turned out it was his gallstone

I wonder what happened to it after he died ...

I liked looking at mine, I thought it was fab

they probably ground it up onto the christmas cake

I asked if I could keep my tonsils as someone had been persuaded to eat them for a bizarre charity fundraiser, but was told firmly no.

Had no interest in my placenta. Had a new baby to stare at.

When our DS was born me and Salamander obviously had other things on our minds but we asked to see the placenta and it was so weird but I loved it. It was inside out and a bit mangled and showed the ill effects of some pregnancy complications I had. I had wanted to take it home just so I could do something special with it or dispose of it myself rather than see it dumped in a bin with a million others but at the time I decided I didnt give a shit was just happy to be alive with DS!

Rolling my eyes at some of these thoughts.

I never saw my first placenta as it was whisked away whilst I was under a drug induced haze.

I specifically asked to see the second and was amazed at its size and beauty.

Have no desire to freeze eat or plant one though.

The hospital I delivered at was in the same market town as a large pharmaceutical company. They took all the placentas to carry out research on apparantly.

some cosmetics companies also use them to make... cosmetics.

No, but I was teaching while I was pregnant and one of my students offered to buy it so she could eat it!

Message withdrawn

i have an olive tree in my garden 'eating' my placenta and god it is shooting up. they are meant to be slow growers!

Other mammals do.

Always remember the vicar visiting our dairy farm when I was about 8, he was chatting to my Mum in the yard whilst a few yards behind him a cow was munching on the placenta. A cow's placenta is huge.

Funny that, if you think about it, a cow being herbivorous and all....

I have also heard they are very nutritious. My mum kept hers in the freezer after having my little sister but they couldn't do it so they buried it in the garden!

So many nutricious things in the world, though. Why would you have to eat your organ that slid out from your vagina during childbirth, among all the blood and gore?

Maybe I would consider eating my placenta if I gave birth on a desert island, didn't have anything else to eat, AND was insane

nutritious

animals tend to eat the placenta to 'hide the evidence' as it were, so as not to attract predators. They don't all though - at lambing time, we have to bury most of them (that the dog doesn't eat!) Having said that, his coat is never so glossy and healthy as that time of year

But excuse me whilst I throw-up...

I had a feral cat once living in my garden shed. After it gave birth to a litter of kitttens I opened the shed door one day to be met with the sight of her halfway through eating the runt of the litter...

like eating the placents its probably a way of gainig as much nitrition as possible in order to maximise the survival potential of the healthier babies.

eenybeeny which cosmetics companies do you know of who use placenta in cosmetics oh hell just name and shame?Oh please god not MAC, Clinique,Lancome,stila,laura mercier,aveda,benefit...

mmmm that's a rosy glow
yes it is placenta

in the whole of mumsnet not one person has ever eaten their placenta?

i'm shocked!

im not i am relieved.placentophagy is akin to cannibalism

I know a woman who ate hers - a couple portions of it knocked back somehow, then capsules made of the rest of it.

I'm planning to eat mine, as I'll try anything to help avoid PND/puerpural psychosis (runs in the family). Given the amount of protein I've been craving during pregnancy, I think it would be a good idea. I think I'll just keep the non-gristly bits in the fridge and whizz it up with orange juice, to knock back ASAP.

The traditional Eastern European thing is to fry it up with onions, but much as I revere my grandma's cooking, I don't think I'll try that!

Ask me at the end of September whether I chickened out or not...

"traditional Eastern European thing" - As in it is normal to eat your placenta in some parts of Eastern Europe?

Where? (just curious)

CoteDAzur - Poland - but I suspect things have changed since my grandparents and great-grandparents' time!

But certainly was the case that a good source of protein and nutrients wouldn't be sneezed at! If you consider it against a backdrop of people starving during winter and having deficiency diseases, it makes more sense. Maybe it will catch on again with rising food prices?

Whether there's any reason to do it now - the jury seems to be out on whether any hormones might help you, but I figure it's worth a try if I can face it at the time. I'm pretty non-squeamish though, after working in pathology and medical research labs, and my partner's used to me bringing home stuff that needs to be kept in the fridge that he doesn't want to know about!