Placentas were probably never meant to be disposable; nature is usually very
miserly with such things as protein, iron, antibodies, hormones.  Animals
consume their own to recycle the nutrients. A mother who has just had a
litter of young can't be prowling around to find food, she has to eat what's
on hand, and it is high-grade protein combined with all the things she needs
to replace the nutrient losses inherent in parturition.  

We have made our placentas disposable by means of norms which define things
as clean and dirty, 'eeew' and 'yum' according to arbitrary cultural
standards.  Blood is eeew in the hospital culture, blood from women's
vaginas is quadruple eeew, and afterbirths have mythical properties in many
cultures.  Organ meats from animals are not universally regarded as a
delicacy either. 

Many maternity care staff in the US think fluid from womens' breasts is
'eeew' too, and a frightening number of people think that a breast in a
baby's mouth is way over the top.  

Human placentas were collected in all maternity units in Norway for years
and sold to a company that harvested antibodies and hormones from them; we
never were clear on what they were used for - cosmetics or pharmaceuticals.
 After a change in awareness about the risk of blood-borne viral infection
that followed on the heels of HIV, this practice stopped and they are now
incinerated unless the mother wants to dispose of hers herself.  (Even when
they were collected for industrial use, a woman could of course choose to
take hers home with her.)  There are no regulations about how this is to be
done, to my knowledge.

Personally I don't care what any woman does with her own placenta but I
would not like to be served someone else's without having specifically asked
for it. 

In 1981, as a student nurse, I heard nurses on a maternity unit in
Washington state mention placenta stew in a derisive way during report, when
it was mentioned that a mother had attended the midwives' clinic and would
be attended in labor by the midwives, which was one option for care in the
hospital. 'Oh, and will she be having placenta stew, too?'  I was shocked at
the time at the attitude it revealed toward midwives and the women who chose
to get care from them.  I've heard lots of people say they know someone who
knows someone who cooked and ate her placenta but never been able to confirm
any of the stories from the source - a lot like urban legends.  

PLEASE do not use Lactnet to post names and dates of documentable meals
consisting of placenta-based dishes to convince me otherwise. 

Rachel Myr
Kristiansand, Norway

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