My Friend Wants My Placenta..

If she wants it badly enough she should just come to you after the birth and collect it.

Annnnd, I just threw up a little in my mouth...

I'm sorry. I'm open minded about a lot of things. But this is a little too cannibalistic for me. I'm glad there are people like this to round out the world, but I'm glad I don't know any of them.

Is this a Halloween prank?

Even if its for real, you should look into laws about sonething like this. Sounds insane to me.

Shut the front, back and side door!
You aren't even pregnant yet and she's drooling over your uterus?
This is twisted.

We had our babies at home and buried the placenta in our yard so I'm not shocked or anything but I do find her request totally weird.

You aren't even sure you're preggers yet and your good friend is claiming the placenta? It won't give her super powers and the idea of shipping it sounds illegal and umm, a bit messy.

Can't she find a placenta to eat closer to home? Sorry, I couldn't help it.

Yeah...it's illegal to ship body parts, organs, fluids, etc. At least, when I worked in a mail center 2 years ago it was. That could be different now.

To make that request of someone is beyond bizarre, and I would never agree to this. Your OWN, whatever. I wouldn't do it, but to each their own. To ask someone else, to consume THEIR placenta. No freaking way.

That's really nasty and it's illegal to ship body parts.

This isn't a cannibal flesh eating zombie Halloween thing, is it?
Some women consume their OWN placenta presumably to help with swings in hormonal balance after giving birth.
(Personally I think a plate of liver and onions would accomplish the same thing.)
Consuming other women's placentas just sounds like a horrible risk for spreading diseases even after what ever it is they do to prepare it.
Placenta jerky anyone? Ewwww!

I don't think it's so strange for some homebirthing moms to send out and have their own dried and encapsulated to take as a vitamin supplement. I don't even think it's too strange that some homebirthing moms have theirs buried under a tree with a ceremony. I understand why some people cook it and make smoothies with it when it's their own. There are very real nutritional reasons to do it and it can help a new mom recover more quickly.

If you have a hospital birth chances will be high that they won't agree to give you the placenta or anything else besides, you know, THE BABY that's been expelled from your body because it's all considered toxic waste. There's no way you'll be able to get them to agree to setting up sending it to "a friend."

And frankly, even if you did a homebirth I wouldn't send it to your friend. It's a ridiculous request for her to make. The only person it would be of use to is you for replenishing YOUR iron stores and other nutrients specific to YOU after your pregnancy, labor, and delivery.

Ewwww I want to vomit just thinking about it. Your friend needs help.

What really makes me laugh here are all the mamas who are grossed out by this.... .and yet they eat cow muscle and fat, pig muscle and fat, chicken embryos with amniotic fluid (eggs), and other "gross" stuff. Haha.

weird...and a little gross...maybe I am behind the times or something but I would have no part in that...good luck!

Tell her you plan to consume it yourself?
Blecccch!

I remember answering Theresa's question along the same lines awhile back with this:

I have not read the story or the other posts.....so here's my take.

I have heard of this practice, probably b/c my whole life I've been around medicine, western, eastern, holistic, etc.

It is considered very healthy to consume the placenta due to it's high iron content.

Similarly, when patients present with anemia (low iron) it used to be the 'norm' to prescribe dessicated liver....which is essentially dehydrated liver, pulverized and put into a capsule. The patient takes with meals and within a couple of weeks, Voila! no anemia.

Most people I meet nowadays do not ever consume liver or seldom eat pate or braunschweiger, which is made from liver products.

There is definitely a strong link between low iron levels and lack of energy or lethary. So it stands to reason, that given a time in history where good beef liver might not have been available, eating the placenta was a viable and healthy alternative.

In addition, I would only recommend this practice to woman who are disease free.

One more afterthought...it does seem to borderline on the side of cannibalism, however I think cannibalism includes killing the human...gross.

I try not to be judgemental about quirky things. I think you will have enough on your hand with a newborn that you should not be committing to looking into these details about shipping your placenta. Hospitals sell placentas all the time to Pharmaceutical companies. So I'm positive there are legal ways to accomplish this.

I vote if you are disease free, and that's probably why your friend is asking you personally, that you freeze your placenta for her to deal with. She can find out the shipping details and ask if you are OK with what she figured out.

Ok... before anyone freaks out too much... there a a lot of cultures where people dry the placentas, put them in capsule form, and then the woman takes the pills. It's supposed to help with post partum depression. It's totally legal where I live to do this, not sure about you.

It's a bit odd that she wants to chop it up and put it in food... can't imagine that would taste all that good. So perhaps you're a troll, but if you're serious, how about offering to get the placenta dried and send to your friend that way. It's a little less gross and still contains all the nutrients. But like a few other posters have said... why would someone want another woman's placenta? Why don't you just encapsulate it yourself and get the benefits?

I would ask her why she wants it, besides to ingest. What does she think it will do for her, why does she want to ingest it?

I personally it think it's odd and a little gross. I do know some cultures do it and there's a resurgence in the US for it.

I don't think you can send it to her, I think it may be considered "human organs" .

Yeah, I knew I shouldn't have clicked on this posted. Nightmares will commence in 3....2....

Maybe you can find an answer in this question I posted awhile back.

http://www.mamapedia.com/questions/4576486627475652609

:)

Yeah, I've heard of placenta consumption before. Also people add it to shampoos and things like that because it's so nutrient-rich.

I don't know where you could have it processed & shipped, but if a friend asked for my placenta, I'd promptly turn them down. That's just gross.

You could put it in your freezer and tell her to come pick it up.

My friend Brenda does placental encapsulation. You can reach her through her work at rainy city midwifery in Seattle!

It is actually very healthy and good for you, some things are weird to some people but who cares? A troll is someone who posts off the wall or silly things to get a reaction out of people, you're definitely not one! Even though you definitely got a reaction, some people here are misinformed and so mean! I'm sorry :(

T.

My daughter's midwife baked her placenta and pressed it into pills which my daughter then took as vitamin/mineral pills. Apparently it's pretty common to consume a placenta. It's rich in nutrients. You could ask your doctor's office and the hospital.

My friend had her own placenta encapsulated, but I'm not sure if you can do someone elses.

S.,

Alot of midwifery places do placenta encapsulation or prepare it for you to put in your food etc. Don't worry about people who think this is weird---There is a huge market for this--just people don't usually talk about it~ One way you can prepare it is just ship it on dry ice---Overnight it and it will be fine. Hope this helps!

http://vivantemidwifery.com/placenta.html

this is a website dedicated to drying and encapsulating the placenta. Not something that I would personally do, but not unheard of either!

I can't respond cuz I'm still laughing aat the other mamas' responses! LOL!