Sam, placentophagia is something still very encouraged among homebirth
groups, and as someone who has worked with midwives for years, I have seen
it over and over.  Here is my take, and I have even blogged about this. 


Heavy metals such as mercury and cancer causing agents such as cadmium are
know to collect in the placenta as well, as well as common drugs and
nicotine. Other studies have detected pesticides, plastics and polymers not
only in umbilical cord blood, but in the placenta.

So why would women think placentophagia is a good thing? Well it is a
potential huge money maker for biopharm companies as researchers use human
placenta for everything from stem cell isolation to nurseries for growing
primitive hematopoietic progenitors, suitable for transplantation in humans.
But note these "magical" components are isolated in a lab, and presumably
separated from the bad things such as arsenic, mercury, pesticides and
nicotine.

With this in mind, why do women buy- in to websites that promise miracles of
eating the placenta quoting studies from 1918 and 1954 ( 2 websites I saw
while trying to figure out the "evidence" for some of my clients thinking
this is a good thing) ? These websites promise everything from increased
milk supply to decreased postpartum depression with only a few laughably out
of date references and many of them animal studies. Most of the belief is
based on the hormonal content of the placenta, and the thinking follows that
the GI tract will deliver these hormones in full strength and magically
produce milk with ease.

With documented heavy metals and pesticides in placenta why would anyone
want to put back in to their body, what the placenta managed to catch and
keep from the baby?  It is a disposable organ for a reason one could assume,
and after the body goes to all the trouble to dispel of it rather than
re-absorb it, women are dehydrating it and eating it. ( one Miami birth
center was recently busted by FDA officials for doing this aka manufacturing
pharmaceuticals without a license.)




~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mirine R. Dye, MPH, CHES, CLE
 <mailto:[log in to unmask]> [log in to unmask]
Florida Keys

 


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