Folk Tales | Placenta

*Folk Tale Disclaimer: These are simply the reasons we chose to do the things we do. We absolutely do not condemn any other parenting decisions as we fully respect that God put specific kids with specific parents and those parents are the only ones fully responsible for their children. These posts are merely meant to be a window into our lives for those who'd like to peer in and to offer some first hand knowledge for people researching these subjects themselves. :) *

So when I consider all the things we do and the way we must be perceived, this topic probably tops my list of Crazy.

Toward the end of the pregnancy, when we were making our birth plan and going through trial runs with the Bradley instructor we attended a "In Case of Emergency" preparation class at the Birthing Center. As a guest speaker, they also featured KC Loveland who shared some information on Placenta Encapsulation. 

Basically, if you're unfamiliar with the process {in which case you must be living under a rock, because everyone knows all about this right??}, all you need to know is that they dehydrate your placenta within a day or two of delivery {during which time it sits in your refrigerator... yes. really.}, crush it up, and stuff it into nifty little dissolvable capsules that you consume daily. You can get anywhere from like 50-120 "caps" depending on how big your placenta is. Modern technology, right? Nuts. {Well, not too modern actually.}

The benefit of this is that your body is able to wean off the insane amount of hormones you produced during pregnancy {and it is insane; more during those 9 months than the entire rest of your life!}.  It is supposed to replenish Mom's blood supply (since a lot of blood is lost during birth and the weeks following) and help with things like lactation and energy. Because hormones are responsible for so many things including emotional shifts the theory is that you can avoid that huge drop responsible for the very common period of depression in about 80% of postpartum mommas.

It's important to note that this is just a theory. Placenta encapsulation is by no means a "happy pill." It carries with it no guarantee. I, for instance, still experienced quite a severe bought of depression about 5 days after RJ was born that persisted for several weeks even with the capsules. I was extremely disappointed because I had been told how miraculous the placenta was and the big thing advertised was "keeping away the Baby Blues." While they certainly did not do that, I cannot know what I would have experienced without them. {For a time I thought they actually brought it on because I began taking them around that time, but now I believe that was merely coincidental since it did seem to only get worse when I decided to test my suspicion by not taking any}. Regardless, the hormones help with a pile of other things including milk production so even if it doesn't keep away those dark days, I do think it's beneficial.

In fact, a testimony to the good hormones in them is that my mom was visiting when RJ was born and she took some to see if they would help with her hot flashes. It turns out they did help! And they worked better than the prescribed hormone pills she had been taking. haha! I can't say I wasn't jealous. ;)

The bottom line on placenta: it's worth a try! It is not gross at all; it feels exactly like taking a vitamin {and let's be honest, do we really know what's in all those pills we don't hesitate to take anyway?? ;)}.