If you’ve spent a few minutes here at the Heights, then you know that we tend to lean toward the crunchy life. I’ve talked before about what we do to avoid getting sick and how we handle sickness when it does come knockin’.

I’m pretty open to the natural way of life and could easily hop on board with things like coconut oil, essential oils, coffee with butter, and salt lamps.

But there are certain aspects of the cliche crunchy life where I draw the line (at least for now). Menstrual cups? Can’t do it. Cloth diapers? No thanks. Eating dirt? Not for me.

Incidentally, however, there was always one thing that I swore up and down that I could never, ever do.

And I did it.

Placenta Encapsulation

The thought of consuming my own placenta after giving birth was so foreign and, frankly, gross, that I wouldn’t even consider the idea for the majority of my pregnancy. I talked to many people who loved it, and I was happy for them; I just never saw myself following in their steps.

Why I Decided to Consume My Placenta

In the final month of my pregnancy, however, various articles about the benefits of a woman consuming her placenta after birth kept creeping across my social media and blog outlets. I had heard it all before. I knew that placenta consumption is believed to:

  • “Help to balance your hormones
  • Replenish depleted iron levels
  • Assist the uterus to return to its pre-pregnancy state
  • Reduce post-natal bleeding
  • Increase milk production – this has been proven in a study
  • Make for a happier, more enjoyable post-natal period
  • Increase your energy levels” (source)

The more I read, researched, and talked with real-life women who had done this before, the more I was convinced to give it a shot.

I finally decided to have my placenta encapsulated for the following reasons:

  1. My natural temperament errs toward emotionally low lows, and I was worried about my emotional state postpartum.
  2. I knew I would be going back to work soon after the baby was born, and I needed all the energy I could muster to perform well on an inadequate amount of sleep.
  3. I did not want my iron levels to dip so low that I would feel faint or weak, especially when caring for a baby

How I Did It

There’s no way I would ever eat the placenta in its raw form. THAT I’m pretty confident won’t be changing. The only way I could choke this thing down is if it were in pill form. By having the placenta encapsulated (dried out, ground up, and put into pill casings), I could trick my mind into thinking it was just another prenatal vitamin. I could stomach that.

I contacted a woman in my area who does placenta encapsulation and set up all the details. The day George was born, my midwife put the placenta on ice (no, I did not look at it), and my awesome sister-in-law picked up the placenta at the hospital and took it to the woman who would encapsulate it. The whole process took about three days, and within a week and a half, the capsules were delivered to our front door.

The Verdict?

In short, they worked for me.

Pros:

  • My mood has been drastically uplifted by consuming the placenta capsules. If I ever forgot to take the capsule, I would notice a significant difference in my state of mind. I would be much weepier, much shorter on patience, and much more melodramatic. Then, within a short time of popping those pills, I would have a much saner outlook on life and on motherhood.
  • We really are getting zero sleep these days, and yet I am somehow still functioning and going full speed for about 13 hours each day, so I’m assuming it’s helping with energy levels.
  • My bleeding has been extremely minimal throughout the entire postpartum period, and thus my iron levels have remained balanced and I have felt fueled and nourished.

Cons:

  • I think they taste weird. I have to hold my nose and down the pills quickly before my tastebuds realize what’s going on.
  • Because my instructions were to take several pills throughout the day, I would often forget my afternoon or evening dose and pay for it emotionally.

Will I consume my placenta with the next pregnancy? Absolutely.

Would I recommend it to every pregnant woman? Yes. While some women experience a negative result with the capsules, it is nothing that cannot quickly be remedied, and I believe the possible positives far outweigh the possible negatives.

What Say You?

Think I’m crazy? Tell me. Have you encapsulated your placenta before? Would you ever consider it? Let me know!