Odd Trend Alert: New Moms Eating Their Placentas. Would you?

I’m all for experimenting. I’m all for trying new things. I’m even all in for alternative medicine. But this new trend of moms eating their placentas is a real head scratcher.

Celebrity mom January Jones is apparently the latest Hollywood mom to take the placental plunge. Placentophagia –is the scientific word for it, though that word usually refers to animals. And apparently there is a Placenta Cookbook, “Mom, this marinara sauce tastes funny!”—which extols the benefits of the “snack” including less postpartum depression, an aid in breast milk production, as a uterine tonic, and as a way to replenish nutrients during pregnancy, according to the book’s author.

First of all, I like my tonic with vodka (oh wait, unless this is the new Bloody Mary!), thank you very much, and when I think of a post-partum “snack” somehow noshing on a sack of blood and TK doesn’t come to mind.

Meanwhile, the Internet is full of videos and stories of women eating their placenta with much joy and delight.  And Jones has reportedly noted that humans are the only animals that don’t eat their placenta.

Well, I don’t lick my own butt either, which I hear is really big in the animal world.

And does natural always mean good for you? #justsayin

Having said that, the good news is, you can take them in capsule form, which sounds slightly more palatable. Although I’m not sure who turns your after birth into a capsule.

Which brings me to an interesting point, anything expelled from your body is usually waste, or something that is supposed to stay out (like your baby), so I can’t help but wonder that if the placenta was so good for you, shouldn’t it stay inside your body—at least for a little while after birth so we could enjoy the benefits?

There have been no scientific studies to confirm or deny the benefits of eating placenta, so the arguments on either side have been strictly anecdotal. One woman shared her negative experience in the New York Times.

But I’m thinking that if it comes out of you, its waste.  If they take out your appendix, are you going to eat that too? I’m sure it’s full of nutrients as well.  Should eating waste matter?  I don’t care if celebrities and crunchy California moms are doing it.

As for ingesting other waste, I just have interject here with the story of how as a new wife visiting my British in-laws for the first time, I sat casually in my sister in laws living room as she and her husband extolled the virtues of drinking their own urine. I kid you not.  I did not wince (until I got to the car).  Nor did I eat any of the snacks she provided.

I will say, I can stomach odd eating behaviors, but all this placenta eating may be more than I can handle.

Would you snack on your placenta?

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