Placentophagy and the Magical Smoothie

This is a sort of follow up to Ocean's free birth story on a subject that many people showed some sort of interest in. Perhaps the sort of interest that teeters between gross bewilderment and educational amusement? Either way, here it is. 

A bit of history first... Before deciding to consume the placenta I did a lot of research to discover if this was really for me. I found out the most beneficial ways of ingesting, and read some first hand accounts of people who had eaten their placenta and what they believe it did for them. I had at that point basically decided that if needed, I would eat the placenta raw after birth to control bleeding and stop hemorrhage. If that was unnecessary, half of the placenta would be consumed raw, the other half encapsulated and taken daily. 

Why eat the placenta you ask? While researching home birth and reading other people's stories to kind of pump myself up for the birth day, a page about placentophagy appeared before my eyes. It was so convincing that more research had to be done. It all made sense to me. After birth women generally seem to accept being tired and weak for days if not weeks. We loose blood and energy allowing new life to come through us, it only makes sense that consuming what once nourished baby could be a vitamin and mineral packed source of re-nourishment for mom. It is traditionally consumed as a chinese medicine to keep postpartum blues away, and can be saved for years to late help with menopause . Placenta is used for so many more things, but these were the reasons that really meant something to me. Being a vegetarian I was opposed to the idea of eating meat until reading something that changed my view of placentophagy so much that peace was made with the idea. A placenta is the only meat that comes from birth or creation rather than death or destruction. I was sold. 

After Ocean was born we got to know each other in the jacuzzi while waiting to cut his umbilical cord and deliver his placenta. We waiting until there was no more blood flowing through the cord, clipped it in two places, and then severed the bond between baby and placenta which had been his vital life force since conception. At this time I delivered the placenta into a bowl which was then carried off to the kitchen for cleaning.  The placenta's journey was slightly unknown. No one had committed to the chore of cleaning and preparing it for my consumption. You can actually hire people to do this step for you, in fact they will come to your house, clean, prepare, dry and encapsulate your placenta for you costing about 250 dollars.  Originally I believed I would do it on my own. Lucky for me, people loved us enough to do all that for me. So while I was relaxing from the wild, psychedelic, baby birthing, Grandma was washing the afterbirth and putting it in the fridge. The next morning Grandma was removing the cord and membranes then chopping the placenta into pieces that seemed to be daily doses for smoothies. We froze those pieces and the rest of the placenta went to the dehydrator to later be ground (in an electric coffee grinder) then funneled into capsules. 

The morning after Ocean's birth we made the first raw placenta smoothie. I admit it was weird, but really the weirdness was in my head. It had no taste, just a texture that was less than pleasing. Grandma even gave it a taste test and to this day I am not sure whether or not she is SURE she ate placenta. She did. :-) I consumed a raw placenta smoothie everyday after birth for about a week or two. As for speeding up recovery... you could say I'm just crazy but less than 72 hours after a 24 hour labor that involved 2 previously sleepless nights we were back to taking our nature hikes at Oxbow, Ocean's first time from the outside. I had no baby blues, decent energy and a general zest for life. That evening we took the rest of the afterbirth, which was basically his cord and membranes, to the ocean for a celebration of his safe entrance into the world. We decided to give the remainders of his aquatic life to the aqua that gave us all life. Mama Ocean. 

And there you have it folks. The story of Placentophagy and the Magical Smoothie. Yummy!