Would You Eat The Placenta?

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Okay, I know this title may be shocking for some of you, and it was for me, too!

Last week, while out to dinner with some friends, I found out that some women, lots of them in fact, actually eat the placenta after their baby is born.


And I'm not talking about tribal women in Africa or something.  These are suburban moms just like you and me.  (And apparently famous people, too!  Did you hear about January Jones?)


My jaw dropped.

This was just about the craziest thing I had ever heard.  And I wouldn't have even believed it if I didn't know the women I was talking to so well.


I made a note to myself to do some research on this, and it turns out, they were right.

The technical term is Placentophagia.  Most mammals eat the placenta after childbirth, to get nutrition.  And throughout the past couple of years, it has become a trend among western moms who follow a more holistic or wellness approach to life.  The belief is that by consuming the placenta, it will help with post pardum depression, milk production, and a host of other issues.

I am all for a holistic approach to life, and solving problems with less medicine etc., but I have to admit, I would never consider eating the placenta.   It just seems icky and gross to me.

BUT, for some women, this is completely natural, and doesn't seem weird at all.  I give them props because they are clearly willing to go further than I am to live a more natural and healthy life.

If you want to read a great post about someone who had a good experience with this, I encourage you to head over to Mama and Baby Love.  Stephanie is one of the moms I met at Blissdom, and she has a wonderful blog that helps moms to think about making different and healthier choices for ourselves and for our children.  {And BTW, she doesn't seem "weird" at all to me!} :)

But I'm curious, did you know that some women were doing this?  What do you think about it?