Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Feminism: chat

Original poster

The placenta

124 replies

YouWerePrettyIWasLonely · 03/04/2021 08:15

My niece is training to be a midwife and she was talking about the placenta last night. I never realised what a magnificent organ it is and that women's bodies make it from scratch. This amazing system of sustainability.

Women are just amazing.

OP posts:
CaveMum · 03/04/2021 13:04

I’d definitely have been up for donating my placentas for research! I assume someone somewhere does research with them!

I work in horse racing and there’s a well known vet researcher in these parts who often used to phone round stud farms and ask them to call her when a mare went into labour so that she could collect them as freshly as possible (horse labour is very short compared to humans!). She’s found out all sorts of interesting stuff like how first foals tend to be smaller as the placentas of maiden mares are not as good for some reason - almost as if the mares body gets better at growing them the more foals she has!

MissBarbary · 03/04/2021 13:21

@BernardBlackMissesLangCleg

It's not an act of will, if you're lucky your body just 'does' it, so it doesn't say anything about you as a person.

but my goodness it does say something about the female body doesn't it?

feeding my babies with milk made by my body was another 'woah' moment

Every female mammal does this. It has nothing to do with any personal achievement. A woman can smoke and drink or take illegal drugs which are seriously harmful to her baby and her body will still do this.

I really enjoyed being pregnant but I find this "ooh, how clever and amazing we are" complete nonsense. There's nothing clever about- it's doing exactly what a female mammals body is for.

Fnib · 03/04/2021 13:29

The body of every female mammal is an amazing thing. Why not celebrate that fact instead of dismissing it @MissBarbary?

FemaleAndLearning · 03/04/2021 13:35

And every live birth is a miracle or whatever term you want to use. There is so much to go wrong. Humans sacrificed easy birth for a large brain and as we walk on two legs instead of four this affects how we carry and birth. Biology really is amazing

vivariumvivariumsvivaria · 03/04/2021 13:43

The fact that my sons left some male DNA behind in me blows my mind.

I'm a chimera. Hear me roar.

EdgeOfACoin · 03/04/2021 13:51

MissBarbary I know full well that being pregnant and giving birth is nothing to do with anything that any one particular woman does. It's not an act of intelligence or willpower or anything else. And I know that there are many women out there who would dearly love to conceive and bear a child but whose bodies won't let them.

But when it happens it is amazing. Every female mammal's body is amazing. We should celebrate it, not dismiss it or downplay it.

I think that the human eye is amazing too.

This board can be very negative about women's bodies at times. This thread is a nice antidote.

YouSetTheTone · 03/04/2021 14:30

I’m reading Ordinary Insanity by Sarah Menkedick - (‘A groundbreaking exposé and diagnosis of the silent epidemic of fear affecting new mothers, and a candid, feminist deep dive into the culture, science, history, and psychology of contemporary motherhood.’)

It’s fascinating so far and I’ve learnt that during the peripartum period the mother’s brain is remade in dramatic ways. Initiated by hormones our brains are not only remodelled but they grow. (Some of this reorientation results in a continued over-firing of anxiety towards things that might hurt the growing baby).

A lot of the neurobiology of maternal behaviour is fairly unknown as ‘In a theme echoed throughout much of the history of humanity, uniquely female contributions- pregnancy, birth, lactation- have historically been taken for granted, diminished or ignored. Only recently have scientists turned their attention to the maternal brain.’

So, not only does a woman grow a placenta and a baby but her own brain grows further. No wonder pregnancy is exhausting!

Original poster
YouWerePrettyIWasLonely · 03/04/2021 14:32

I think my point is that we don't marvel at the incredible things the female body can do. I never cast much thought to a placenta before but thinking about it blows my mind. Our bellybuttons being the only evidence we were once reliant on this fantastic organ and yet, as with so much to do with the female body, we are lead to think of it as something yucky and to be whipped away before we can see it.

OP posts:
Fnib · 03/04/2021 14:44

Another one for my ever increasing wish list @YouSetTheTone
Thank you 😊

MissBarbary · 03/04/2021 15:02

@Fnib

The body of every female mammal is an amazing thing. Why not celebrate that fact instead of dismissing it *@MissBarbary*?
Why? It's nothing to do with being "clever". It's not some great personal achievement.
MissBarbary · 03/04/2021 15:05

But when it happens it is amazing. Every female mammal's body is amazing. We should celebrate it, not dismiss it or downplay it

Yeah, let's celebrate women being breeding machines - because that's what you are doing.

Tocktickclick · 03/04/2021 15:10

I'm not sure anyone is saying that 'they' are particularly clever. Simply that the body itself is an amazing thing. But you carry on being unimpressed missbarbary

AdHominemNonSequitur · 03/04/2021 15:29

"Why? It's nothing to do with being "clever". It's not some great personal achievement."

Bah humbug. By that rationale being clever is not being "clever". It's not some great personal achievement.

"Yeah, let's celebrate women being breeding machines - because that's what you are doing."

Well maybe we should. Do you never marvel at nature?

EdgeOfACoin · 03/04/2021 15:32

@MissBarbary

But when it happens it is amazing. Every female mammal's body is amazing. We should celebrate it, not dismiss it or downplay it

Yeah, let's celebrate women being breeding machines - because that's what you are doing.

Don't be absurd.
Outwithreason · 03/04/2021 15:33

"Yeah, let's celebrate women being breeding machines - because that's what you are doing"

It is celebrating what female bodies are capable of.

GeidiPrimes · 03/04/2021 15:34

@ChattyLion

I’ve trying to understand a little bit more about the placenta just by googling because I want to be able to describe pregnancy accurately to my kids.

It’s really making me question the sexism of the social narrative around pregnancy which presents the uterus as just a safe or handy place to keep a developing baby. Uterus as an ‘oven’ for example.
Clearly human embryos don’t spontaneously and independently ‘develop’ in there to term like a fertilised bird’s or fish’s egg would do. The human fetus obviously relies on interaction and nutrients and oxygen gained by being linked to the to mother via cord and placenta to her body and adjacent blood flow as happens in human pregnancy..
Always interesting to consider why politically there would be a trivialising and misrepresenting theme around human pregnancy.. Hmm

I think it was in the 1700s it was believed that the sperm contained fully formed tiny humans, and the uterus was just a handy, safe place to grow bigger. Preformationists?
LilacIris · 03/04/2021 15:37

One of my babies died because the placenta didn’t do it’s job. What our bodies can do is incredible, it’s just devastating when they don’t always get it right.

GeidiPrimes · 03/04/2021 15:38

@MissBarbary

But when it happens it is amazing. Every female mammal's body is amazing. We should celebrate it, not dismiss it or downplay it

Yeah, let's celebrate women being breeding machines - because that's what you are doing.

Oops, forgot some people don't like women discussing their biology.
EdgeOfACoin · 03/04/2021 15:42

If I marvel at the human eye, am I reducing people to being 'seeing machines'?

MaudTheInvincible · 03/04/2021 15:45

I'm always amazed by this "During pregnancy, women's energy use peaks at 2.2 times their resting metabolic rate, the study showed."

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-48527798

I think I've seem somewhere that women's advantages in feats of physical endurance are linked to our bodies' adaptations for pregnancy.

SilverOtter · 03/04/2021 16:05

The female body is mind bogglingly amazing!

Even simple things that we don't really think about. I'm halfway through a medical degree and when we covered the menstrual cycle my mind was blown! The lecturer described how when the womb lining is shed it's basically an open wound, that then heals completely without any scarring. And then does this every month. Literally the only tissue in the human body that regenerates without any scarring whatsoever. Astoundingly clever!

CarlottaValdez · 03/04/2021 16:25

It's not some great personal achievement."

I consider DS my greatest personal achievement.

FannyCann · 03/04/2021 16:47

Does it make a difference to the placenta if the woman lives in a city next to a busy road versus somewhere more rural?

@EdgeOfACoin I think the gases inhaled and consequent problems are different. Placental problems related to smoking are due to the vasoconstriction effects of nicotine. A busy road may well cause breathing problems to the mother like exacerbating asthma and indeed to the child after it is born. I don't know for sure but I would think the placental barrier effect would protect the fetus in utero unless the mother's breathing was affected so significantly as to impact blood gas exchange.

Total digression but re smoking I learnt something interesting last week. A patient was consulting with one of our colo-rectal surgeons to plan for having her colostomy reversed (ie the bowel joined up again). He explained that smoking significantly increases the chances of the anastomosis breaking down, 4 x the risk, due to the vaso constriction from nicotine affecting the delicate blood supply and oxygen needed for healing. He explained it was not up for discussion, he would not negotiate, she must give up all smoking, vaping and nicotine replacements for at least six weeks pre-op. Surgeons don't ask people to give up smoking pre op for no good reason!

Isadora2007 · 03/04/2021 17:15

Amazing... and I’m so glad more women are being encouraged to look at and admire their placentas after birth!! This nourished a lovely chunky 9lb 15 baby girl- born in my home 💕

Whatsnewpussyhat · 03/04/2021 17:40

I think that feet don't grow so much as flatten and spread with the extra weight being carried.