My first encapsulation, with bonus Buffy reference. GRAPHIC!

(Note to self, make sure I don't accidentally post this on my food blog . . . )

SECOND WARNING: This is going to be graphic.

I've been touting the potential benefits of placenta consumption, specifically in the form of encapsulation, which is by far the most palatable means of so doing for most, myself included. Check out the site Placenta Benefits for tons of information, including articles on its benefits (such as reducing bleeding and lochia, helping to prevent postpartum depression, and aiding abundant lactation), how to get one's placenta released from the hospital if you birthed there, collected scientific research and so on. I missed out on the chance to do this with my own placenta, sadly, but I'm currently working with a postpartum client who was not only game to give this a try, but also gave me permission to both write about and share photographs of the whole process. DID I MENTION THIS WAS GOING TO BE GRAPHIC?

P.S. This is going to be graphic!

Ready?

I was alerted to the happy birth of her second daughter within hours of the happy event, I hightailed it over to her house to pick up the goods as soon as possible, and set to work.

And here's the healthy specimen. I like my Culinary Institute of America logo on the cutting sheet there, don't you? Anyway, her midwives had already removed the umbilical cord and wrapped it up neatly, storing it in the refrigerator until I could get there to pick it up. (This was a home birth, so we didn't have to worry about obtaining it from the hospital.)

I donned gloves and got down to business. The process involves three major steps: steaming the placenta, then drying it either in a dehydrator or an oven on a very low setting, and then grinding it into a powder. First it was thoroughly rinsed, then cut into several pieces in order to fit manageably into the steamer.



I then steamed it with a sliced lemon and a few chunks of ginger, for both preservation and odor. The scent of this has been remarked upon; it's not unpleasant. One friend of mine found the scent disturbing specifically because she thought it actually smelled quite tasty; like, she kept thinking "Mmm, pot roast," and then remembering immediately what it actually was. Others have described it as rather gamey, like cooking elk or deer, if you have experience of that. I wonder if it might not be best described as the scent of offal cooking. Big game offal. With Asian flavor profiles, due to the citrus and ginger.

OKAY, if you're still with me, after steaming the placenta for 15 minutes on each side, I sliced it into smaller strips and placed it into my preheated low oven. There it remained overnight, and because it wasn't quite done yet in the morning and I had to depart for work, on the advice of my friend Justine (who you might remember from our placenta playdate), I cranked the oven up for just a few minutes and then turned it off altogether. Perfect.


And there it is! All that was left to do was grind it up. Lucky for me, I have a Vita-Mix blender, the Cadillac of blenders, but a good food processor would do the trick just fine. It pulverized it in about 10 seconds.



I then made the mistake of not letting the dust settle before opening. Clouds of placenta dust poofed out the top, and I couldn't help inhaling quite a bit, then having a huge coughing fit. Suddenly I knew exactly how Buffy feels when she dusts a vamp and accidentally gets a lungful.

That's all there is to it! I filled a few capsules just to get her started, but there's no need to do all of them at once, and I'm told they can actually get sticky if left too long. The rest went into a ziploc baggie along with some fenugreek and blessed thistle (not a huge amount of either), and I brought it right over to mama, who has been taking them regularly ever since!

I'm so grateful to her for allowing me to have this experience, as it's definitely something I want to be able to offer to all my clients in the future, and I'm also glad to have been able to share it with you! (If you made it to the end of this, you're officially a member of the birthgeek club. Check your inbox for the secret handshake and exclusive decoder ring.)

Placenta Playdate

Unless you plan to encapsulate or otherwise consume your placenta shortly after birth (pun so intended), chances are, if you're a homebirther, this amazing, miraculous, life-sustaining yet disposable organ is liable to spend a good amount of time in your freezer, awaiting the day the parents get their act together enough to do something meaningful with it. I believe there's even a t-shirt out there to that effect. Let's see . . .

Yup!

WARNING: The rest of this post is not for the faint of heart, if you're not an avowed birthnerd, this is liable to squick you out in a serious way. Ok, read on:

Up until yesterday, Lily's placenta had been residing in the deep recesses of my freezer for just shy of 2 and a half years, awaiting symbolic closure. I figured I would eventually bury it, but had yet to find a suitable final resting place for this incredible organ which had both caused me so much anxiety during pregnancy (it was a persistent previa, not cleared for delivery until week 34) and also sustained my precious baby, passing along the good and filtering out the bad, acting as the gateway between our bodies - maybe even our souls. I couldn't bring myself to leave it somewhere random.

Obviously the time has long since passed to encapsulate it, though I fully plan to do so next time (and had I known more about encapsulation, I definitely would have done so - it may have done a lot to help me cope with my postpartum period). I figured all I could really do with it is eventually find a burial spot - but it turns out that there was one thing that I definitely could still do with it.

I was thrilled to learn that my friend Justine had defrosted her daughter's at about 18 months and it was still in good enough shape to make placenta prints! I had assumed the tissue wouldn't hold up to being frozen that long, but I was wrong! So we set up a date for the most organic crafting activity ever, and I transferred it from the freezer to the fridge. Once it had a chance to defrost almost completely, I took it out to lay it a little flatter and lay some towels beneath it, as it would be giving of a lot of excess moisture, in preparation for the big day. I found it wrapped in several layers, even within the outer layer of heavy-duty freezer bag:

Then, there were several plastic bags, and finally, the original Chux pad it had been laid in. I then opened it up (and shall spare you the picture, though there is one) to find there was a plastic glove and a piece of gauze from the big day. It definitely makes me an official weirdo to admit this, but the Chux pad, the gauze and the glove all made me feel overwhelmed with nostalgia. Anyway, here it is, the specimen itself:

This is the maternal side you're looking at, the side that attaches directly to the uterine wall. It would be the opposite side we'd be dealing with, with its lovely, branch-like veining patterns. Here's Justine getting things set up for me, her daughter Tillie looking on:



We initially did just a 'blood print', using just the blood rather than any paints. This is a nice thing to do if you have a fresh placenta, but once frozen, it'll be pretty faint, as there isn't much blood left. We also tried using a watercolor first, but acrylics are definitely the way to go. Here I am painting Lily's first apartment, with former resident Lily standing by:

Once painted, you gently lay the paper or canvas over the placenta and GENTLY smooth your hand over the surface.

Then you slowly . . .


. . . sloooooooowly peel the paper back . . .

. . . et voila!

The tree of life.

We made a whole bunch of prints on construction paper, and chose the best color combinations for the three canvas boards I picked up.




Behold: Art!


Once we were done, I rinsed it clean of the paint (mostly), and had one last look.

I don't care what it says about me, I think this is just beautiful. And I now have three finished canvases - one for me and one for Lily, which I hope she will keep with her always. The fate of the third is yet to be determined, perhaps I'll just hang it somewhere as well. I'd like to send one of the paper prints to my midwife, and maybe one to my unofficial doula, Patty.

As for what I'm doing with the placenta, now that I've had my moment of artistic closure? You can probably guess.

Yep, it's back in the freezer. I just couldn't let it go. I KNOW, I KNOW, eventually it's gotta happen. And I will bury it, probably soon, before the ground freezes. But for now, I could still wear the t-shirt with pride.

If you go out in the woods today . . .

What to do with a placenta after the baby's born? I thought I'd heard it all.

Making a lovely tree print. Hanging out with it in a salad bowl for days, lotus birth style. Chowing down on some chili, spaghetti sauce, or even a blended 'cocktail', for the daring. Encapsulating it, for those who want the benefits in a tidier, less-squeamishness-inducing way (I hope to eventually offer this service myself). Burying it under a tree - which I still plan to do with Lily's someday. Leaving it wrapped and labeled in the freezer for years on end with intentions of doing one of the above is a very popular option. Or "donating" it to cosmetics companies, which if you're in the hospital may be pretty much your only choice.

But here's one that is truly news to me: making a teddy bear out of it.

A crafty alternative for those who don’t necessarily want to eat their baby’s placenta, but want to pay their respects to the life sustaining organ by turning it into a one-of-a-kind teddy bear. Green’s ‘Twin Teddy Kit’ ‘celebrates the unity of the infant, the mother and the placenta,’ and enables preparation of the placenta so it may be transformed into a teddy bear. The placenta must be cut in half and rubbed with sea salt to cure it. After it is dried out, it is treated with an emulsifying mixture of tannin and egg yolk to make it soft and pliable.

I'm not sure I'll be adding this onto my list of optional postpartum services just yet . . .