I’m sort of “over” the placenta-eating conversation. The subject was strange/enchanting when January Jones talked about freeze-drying her placenta and eating it in convenient vitamin-pill form. The subject got progressively grosser when Gabby Hoffman claimed that she reused her placenta in smoothies for weeks after giving birth, and that eating it that way helped boost her milk production and helped her lose weight. Well, now Kim Kardashian is climbing on the placenta-eating trend, which is how you know the trend is dead.
Kim Kardashian isn’t afraid to talk about the weirder side of pregnancy, including her plans to eat her placenta after giving birth to son, Saint West, earlier this month.
“So, I’m really not this holistic person or someone who would have ever considered eating my placenta. I actually thought Kourtney would have soooo done this, but I don’t think she did,” Kim wrote, although Kourtney Kardashian did decide to consume her placenta as well. “And when I say ‘eat my placenta,’ I mean that I’m having it freeze-dried and made into a pill form—not actually fry it like a steak and eat it (which some people do, BTW).”
But this won’t be the first time she’s consumed her own placenta. Kim did the same thing after giving birth to North West in order to help prevent any postpartum depression.
“I heard so many stories when I was pregnant with North of moms who never ate their placenta with their first baby and then had postpartum depression,” she explained. “But then when they took the pills with their second baby, they did not suffer from depression! So I thought, why not try it? What do I have to lose? I really didn’t want the baby blues and thought I can’t go wrong with taking a pill made of my own hormones—made by me, for me. I started researching and read about so many moms who felt this same way and said the overall healing process was so much easier.”
Several celebrity moms, including January Jones and Kim Zolciak, have opened up publicly about the benefits of consuming their placenta. Thus, Kim decided to join them and the results were just as positive.
“I had great results and felt so energized and didn’t have any signs of depression!” Kim revealed. “I definitely had to do it again. Every time I take a pill, I feel a surge of energy and feel really healthy and good. I totally recommend it for anyone considering it!”
The medical benefits of placenta-eating are… anecdotal, from what I can see. Some people do swear by it and some people don’t believe it does much of anything. My general opinion is that if you’re following the January Jones method – which Kim is – it won’t hurt anything and if it makes you feel better (or think that you feel better), why not? I don’t think the Gabby Hoffman method – including placenta in smoothies – is all that great though. And Kim’s right, I can’t believe Kourtney didn’t do it first. Kourtney seems very earth-mothery about this kind of stuff.
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.
Eating your own bodily fluids or whatever you would call your placenta just grosses me out. Sorry.
I totally agree!!
co-sign
That’s all I could think of throughout the article … gross, gross, gross, gross, gross
She’s lying. Doesn’t she have placenta accreta? Would this even be possible if THAT is true?
I don’t buy any of this, she’s lying about everything. I wish someone would call her out on all these lies.
It grosses me out too. Is there any evidence to support this? Or are we talking placebo effect here? Still ok I guess if you even “think” it helps.
There is no way she did this with North no matter what she claims. She would have given interviews and TV shows just to talk about it. We all know she would have shouted it from the rooftops. She and Kourtney can claim and lie about anything and everything! I don’t believe a word that comes out of their enhanced blown up lips!
GNAT; my doula sisters do Tons of placenta encapsulations. They can even flavor the pills nowadays so you can’t even tell. You’d be shockingly surprised how common this actually is, even with the less natural mamas.
I didn’t do it when I had mine, but if there are three things I could change with the knowledge I have now as a Doula I would have definitely taken the pills, delayed cord clamping and done unwashed skin to skin.
I said below thread as well, but I can ALWAYS tell when a mama I’m working with hasn’t taken their pills. Possibly placebo affect but there is also this:
http://www.placentawise.com/research-studies-supporting-placenta-encapsulation/
@ Little Darling, I did all of the stuff you mentioned and I believe in it 100%. I recommend the placenta pills for sure. It’s actually what women were supposed to do when they have babies.
And to @ everyone that is “grossed out”: that’s rude and classless. I’m sure you were typing with a mouth full of fast food, soda or whatever child-like food you eat!
@susie
SO, not wanting to eat
your own body parts
Is classless and rude?
I think your comment is childish
AND rude, to the extreme.
Just saying. . .
@Susie: As someone that benefitted from taking the pills (MASSIVELY), I agree that it works. I’m a believer, and it takes a lot for me to believe in something! I don’t think people are rude or classless for being turned off by it. I just wish that more people would be open to things, or at least less “judge-y” about women who are. You never know. This side of five years ago, I would have never even considered doing it, and I probably would have left “EW GROSS” comments on a forum just like this, but now that I’ve been through what I’ve been through, I’m really really thankful for those pills. I’ll be doing that again if I have another baby.
Susie- women are not “supposed” to do anything except make sure they are keeping themselves and their baby well. Placenta eating is gross, sorry.. It’s blood and guts it’s not magic! You didnt create magical wonderunicorn food. It’s a vieny floppy growth that pumped blood to your kid. Go ahead and eat it, I hope you enjoy it. A steak and a kale salad would do the same damn thing. We don’t live in food insecure caveman days, there is no real reason to eat your dead and decaying pregnancy organ.. I’m so sick of moms (I’m a mother myself) acting like their pregnancies create MAGICAL, INCREDIBLE substances. Yeah, your boob milk is healthy for your offspring (so is every mammal’s since the beginning of time) and your placenta does have iron (so does FOOD.) You’re just another random human and giving birth doesn’t make you special or better.
Uhhh, Susie, vegetarian here…if I’m not going to eat the flesh of other sentient beings, I sure as hell am not going to eat myself. It’s the principle of the thing for me, as well as the feeling that it crosses some serious taboo.
When i was little we use to have cats around the house. It was a big house with a big garden and cats use to come and go as they pleased. Naturally they used to have kittens too (usually in my parents double bed, but that’s another story) and they always use to eat their placenta. My mother asked a nurse who lived near us and she said that they do it because they need nourishment and the placenta has all they need those first days.
Now, it may have or it may have not any benefits BUT if animals do it it must have something to it. Naturally we as people have a lot of ways to give the body of a new mother all that it needs through food sooo….i guess to each her own.
I heard animals eat their placenta as it does give them nourishment for a few days so they don’t have to go out and hunt for food and leave their new babies alone unprotected. That doesn’t mean humans need to do it though. I say to each their own. If you want to eat yours go ahead…but don’t judge women who are grossed out by it as we are all grossed out by something aren’t we?
Animals also do it to hide the scent of birth which is attractive to predators. Are you expecting bears to bust through the hospital door or something? Gimme a break. Humans have evolved to the point where we can access all the nourishment we need via food very easily, no need to gnaw on a decaying organ that is past its prime the second it’s expelled.
@GNAT
It’s not a fluid. It’s flesh. An organ, in fact. So, it’s technically self-cannibalizing. Yummy! Kim probably calls it her dessert. She did eat her own brain years ago, right?
Uhhh…can you say cannibalism? ‘Cause that’s what this is, although it’s these women cannibalizing themselves and something that helped form their offspring. Just flat out gross.
Of course she is.
Blech!
That hairline is extraordinary. She is like a Lego woman, although I suspect that a Lego woman would have both more charisma and a lower plastics content.
Bahahahahah this made me laugh tea out my nose thank you!!,
Sounds more like a placebo effect. Is there any real scientific studies out there or is this all word of mouth? Sounds like the only research Kim did is to look at what other mothers had said. Just curious and wouldn’t this have had to been decided before she gave birth?
Found this: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26043976
Basically, no. There’s no concrete scientific evidence.
Thank you Jay – I’m too wrapped up in Holiday decorating to even research this (I did read it though). I would think that if there was scientific evidence that more doctors would be recommending it for women. But I don’t see any Drs. recommending it – just so called “stars” (some are and some are not).
@ swack mid-wives and doulas recommend it. As a mom that took them, I also recommend. My mood was ok, but never was I low on milk. Not even once!
@susie But that doesn’t mean it was cause of the placenta pills…
Some women will be naturally low on milk, some won’t ever have problem producing enough. As with everything else every person is different. You are attributing your milk production to taking that pill when the highest chance is that you were always genetically programmed to produce enough.
It even changes from one pregnancy to another. With me my mum never had a problem, 2 years later when my brother was born she was running low after the 1st few months.
Sorry but you can’t proof that you had enough milk cause you took placenta pills.
Just like Kim can’t proof she didn’t get post-partum depression cause of that. Not every women that gives birth suffers that.
And as they just posted there is not specific scientific evidence. Seems like a lot of people jumping on a trend cause some people says it worked for them when in reality they can’t proof that it would have been otherwise had they not taken them.
Eating placenta is disgusting to me but if it helps with postpartum depression then do it. Is that even true?
Not really. There are women who swear by it. The logic goes that a placenta is a hormone-rich organ, and that by eating it, you ingest those hormones back in and they help starve off the hormonal dips that come after pregnancy, and that makes you more balanced and more even-keeled over time. But truthfully, I’m not sure how it would work. Freeze-drying it would probably deplete most of any nutritional or medical value it would have, right? You’d probably have to “go fresh” to get any benefits, in my mind. Which, just, nope. They also point out that a lot of animals eat the placenta, which is true. But zoologists think that’s because the smell of the organ would draw predators, so they eat it to protect themselves – not for any health benefits.
So basically…nope. Nothing really backs it up as a medicine. But there’s not a ton of research on it to start with, so take that with a grain of salt.
*le sigh* Does it matter if science doesn’t back it up? Do we only do anything if science first tells us it’s ok to? I don’t mind what people do with their bodies, but as one in thousands of women who saw not only a complete recession in my PPD once I started taking the pills, but other massive improvements to my overall vitality…yeah. I’m not going to wait for science to explain why I should take them. It’s a cult following, and for good reason. Science behind medicine changes from year to year, some of that due, in part, for financial reasons. If women claim that it helps them, let them claim it. It certainly won’t hurt anyone, and it may save someone’s life as it did mine.
Speaking as a scientist who has translated tons of clinical trial materials – people put way too much faith in clinical trials. They can indicate extremes (miracle cure vs deadly) but everything in between is murky. Those international study centers in a multicenter can just be a lot of individual doctor’s offices and clinics where one or two people are enrolled in the study. They try to quantify things so they can run their statistics software (which I personally think is misused in medicine) but there are too many uncontrollable factors when dealing with complex systems such as humans, plus the inevitable problems of having different people in different places doing the testing on people with such different lifestyles. This is why you can see studies coming to completely different conclusions about the same treatment. There are just too many variables and problems with the way studies are set up and who exactly gets recruited into the trials.
All clinical trials are ultimately collections of anecdotes, even if they also collect numbers. So it is unwise to toss away other collections of anecdotes from long experience. I doubt that there is enough money in placenta preparation to justify the huge costs of official large-scale clinical trials anyway. So if a treatment isn’t dangerous or expensive and you think it might help you, go ahead and try it. It might work, it might not – which is the same situation you face in the doctor’s office when receiving a prescription for a drug or a recommendation for treatment. Doctors will act as though they have God-like confidence even if they don’t (or if they’re too ignorant to realize the uncertainties), in hopes of improving response by the much-maligned “placebo effect”, which is shorthand for “we don’t know how, but sometimes a sugar pill works as well if the patient believes in it”. The brain is the command center for all the body functions, including the immune system. It would be surprising if “belief” didn’t improve response… In some cases, being handed a sugar pill by someone in a white coat may just be enough to trigger the brain to take care of things. But I suspect the placenta reports do have basis in something outside the brain, we just don’t know enough about it. But I would certainly not dismiss the informal reports, especially since they compare results with and without the placenta.
If I were planning research, I would first look at whatever is in the placenta that would not lose its function when dried and pulverized. There is undoubtedly plenty that would still be active. My cats’ old vet highly recommended Immuplex, which is basically powdered organs in a capsule. I can tell you that it is definitely reproducibly effective in cats, so there is definitely a lot of activity in the dried and pulverized product. The vet recommended them for a cat who was getting recurring cystitis (Immuplex had just come out for humans so she recommended the human dose of 1-2 capsules; today, vets generally recommend 1/4 capsule for cats in most cases as all that’s needed). It did knock kitty out of that endless cycle of cystitis, but there was another curious effect that made me call them “peace pills”. One pill a day made her act civil to her sweet sister, whom she had been mistreating practically since conception. Two pills a day made her actually nice. If I could have afforded it (they were expensive at the time, much cheaper now), I would have had a much quieter house.
Anyway, lack of research doesn’t mean lack of efficacy. It just means not enough people were paid to do the research.
Freeze-drying does not destroy all nutritional or medicinal value. Foods are freeze-dried or dried and still have nutritional value. Some components don’t survive any treatment or are greatly reduced in cooking, drying, or storage, but that’s not so for everything. Prescription medicines are often freeze-dried and encapsulated. Herbs are commonly dried and encapsulated also for medicinal purposes, and still have an effect.
Freeze drying probably is much gentler on fragile components than cooking.
TMI! We don’t care Kimmie…. Please, go live YOUR life, and stop reporting every move you make.
Pitiful!
Word!I am shocked we haven’t heard about her first bowl movement after this last baby.
@Jwoolman – Thank you for your insight in this thread and others. I so enjoy reading your posts. I usually feel more educated after reading one and sometimes feel the need to pass on your information. (I’ve even had discussions w/my Ivy League son on some of your points, lol, however random, and can “hear” him raising his eyebrows). Keep your views coming!
Kim will put anything in her mouth for attention….. ANYTHING……
😂😂😂😂😂!! True.
She’s disgusted and squeamish about the simplest little thing. I don’t believe her. I think she thinks that saying that makes her sound relatable or whatever and like “oh, (the K girl is eating her placenta) that’s so awesome.”
She’s the same person who said on camera that “all Indian food is disgusting” yet she’ll gladly eat her own organ? Please, as if she’s had EVERY type of Indian food (there is a lot) to be able to say that. I should tell her Indian food will “make you look young”. I’m sure she’ll gladly eat it then lol.
Wait, isn’t this the placenta of doom that grew into her uterus and had to be SCRAPED OUT BY HAND? I’d say don’t let the door hit you, placenta. But that’s me.
So true but…..Ew! Hand Scraped Placenta! I need to bleach my brain.
Cut off my arms and call me Venus DeMilo. This is not in any way, shape or form a normal human being. Be gone with you already Kim.
@Nancy, thank you for that, this is my quote of the day, “cut off my arms” etc. Great to have a giggle first thing on a chilly morning.
Look at Sam, number 6, why some animals do it.
My answer is supposed to be to Zip, see below, number 10.
You are EATING your own ORGAN. I guess cannibalism is tres chic?
Non-human animals do it all the time.
Some “non human animals” also eat their young if they sense something is wrong with them. There are PLENTY of things “non human animals” do that we do not, for good reason lol.
So that predators don’t come smelling blood and rotting organ and eat the new defenseless baby.
Calm down, Snarky. I didn’t say I would eat that stuff, too. I just don’t get why people would be so grossed out. Most people eat meat and eggs and consume milk products. What is the difference to eating a placenta?
@ Zip
People get grossed out by different things. To some, just the thought of child birth grosses them out. To some eating meat grosses them out. In some countries dog meat is common to eat, yet in North America people seem to be “outraged” by it. Everyone is different. What grosses one person out may not gross the next person out. Let it be.
I think if it meant real results, most of us would succumb to doing things that are “gross”. I totally ate placenta pills. And I’m proud of it, because they basically saved my life this time around. Before going through PPD, I would never have even considered it. But after that experience, I was willing to do anything. And good thing I did. There are loads of things in life that sound gross until you try them. You don’t have to, but please don’t put down people who do. You may find yourself on the other end of the stick someday, desperate for relief and willing to give this a try. And comparing eating placenta to eating an egg? Yeah. That comparison is valid. It’s just that as a community, we’re used to the latter and not the former. I have no problem with people picking and choosing what they’ll do. I just wish people could be a little more open about stuff.
Non human animals do a lot of gross things. My dogs, for example are not dainty ladies, that does not mean I would.
Exactly … but at the same time …
@Careygloss +👍🏼👏🏾 thinking outside the box is allowed and embraced. 😊
Im sorry but if Kim is really concerned about her losing the weight maybe she should have continued going to the gym while being pregnant to help maintain her weight and stick to a trainer. Instead she spent hours of picking out what outfit to wear and what coat to hide her huge ass. Her priorities are her looks and weight much so spending time with her kids. Kim just face it that your body wont look like what it used too…just as much as your face.
She did the same thing when North was born. At least they made it seem that way on their “reality show”. She said she heard eating the placenta can make you look “younger”. Where she got that info, I don’t know. If someone told Kim that smearing dog poop on your face would get rid of future wrinkles, she’d probably do that too.
Saw old pictures of Kim like five years ago. She used to be pretty even when she smiled….now not so much. She looks weird and her face does not move.
She’s not gonna sell them?
Shudder!
Clutching pearls. . .
So gross. Here’s a thing. If you live in a place that has more Starbucks than polar bears, you don’t need to eat your placenta.
perhaps the bar should be a little higher than “Starbucks”? And based on solely on the “quality of food” that USA thinks appropriate to eat, I prefer my placenta.
I opted against doing this after my babies, but if it was proven to help smooth out the post partum hormone dip, I would be ALL over it. I’m going to guess that a placenta is richer in a lot of nutrients than a cup of coffee.
Well, placenta eating, urine therapy, menstruation blood fertilizer (and not even mentioning the witchery in this field), human hair knitting wool (supposed to be very scratchy) and what else. I have not heard of eating feces, but who knows, since some animals do it, therefore it must be good. I guess, everything sells.
I am pretty much into holistic medicine myself, but the superstition in this field is breath taking.
LOL.. Dogs eat their own poop so it must be good for us too!!
Well, since you mention feces… Utilizing healthy feces with all the bacteria (comprising easily 1/3 the weight) as fecal transplants is being used as a treatment for bowel disorders such as ulcerative colitis that are suspected to involve lack of appropriate friendly flora.
Maggots are still used sometimes for wound cleaning. I think even leeches are making a comeback, can’t remember the details.
Basically, any “old-fashioned” treatment may make a comeback at any time when somebody not entirely grossed out by it starts thinking about why the treatments might have been successful and how they might still be helpful. It’s foolish to toss away centuries of experience, especially since modern magic bullets like antibiotics began to show their dark side once they were in common use. We need a multi-pronged approach to medicine rather than relying on just one thing (if they had been more cautious about tossing antibiotics at every illness, we might not be having the serious antibiotic resistance and problems with depleted/exhausted friendly flora that we face today).
Many of the prescription and OTC drugs today were suggested by reports about the use of traditional medicinal plants. Research often looks at extracts of such plants, trying to zero in on the most effective ingredient. Aspirin is a famous example, extracted from willow bark. One reason people are concerned about losing the Amazon Rain Forest is the loss of the diversity of plants which have not yet been studied.
For example, the sugar D-mannose is an ingredient in the traditional cranberry used for UTIs. I saw a report of a laboratory study, showing that if sufficient amounts of just D-mannose are ingested, most ends up unaltered in the urine and is more attractive to E. coli than the urinary tract tissues. So the mannose helps them detach from the tissues and binds the E. coli via their mannose receptors. The bacteria change shape to round in the process, and will leave the bladder attached to the mannose along with the urine. This at least partially explains the traditional use of cranberry for UTIs, most of which are caused by E. coli. It doesn’t kill the bacteria but helps flush it away from the tissues. Many people report good success with just the D-mannose powder rather than glugging cranberry juice or taking cranberry capsules, although all three approaches can help.
By the way, the fact that a doctor doesn’t recommend a treatment most likely means he or she just never heard of it or can possibly be misinformed. They’re just consultants and all have their own strengths and weaknesses. I asked my doctor about using D-mannose powder for a UTI along with the antibiotic, and he had never heard of it. I knew about it because I’m a chemist and saw the detailed report from an American Chemical Society meeting. My doctor did know about cranberry juice and so just told me to drink two disgusting glasses of it a day along with the antibiotic… (Not a juice fan.) He was a competent doctor but just wasn’t up on the latest research, so he stuck with what he knew. If they don’t have time to evaluate a new treatment and don’t hear about it through their own channels, they can’t really recommend it even though it might be quite effective. So if it’s safe and won’t interfere with other treatments you are under, there is no harm in trying it. The pharmacist (who is a chemist) is more likely to know about drug interactions than your doctor, but I would ask both.
I’ve done the d-mannose thing for a UTI. I don’t know if it worked, but combined with an antibiotic, the UTI cleared right up 🙂
I DID IT! Yes I will own it, I had such bad ppd after my first two and was expecting surprise twins, so I would have 4 under 4 and my oldest has severe special needs. So I thought, you know what? I’m just gonna do it and see what happens, I’ve got nothing to lose. Well I’m 3 1/2 months in a I think they have helped. I’m not as crazy, bitchy or on the brink of hurting someone or wanting to run away. Is it a placebo effect? Maybe. Is it just the fact that I’ve grown since my first two? Maybe. But I don’t care, I think they help so that’s all that matters to me.
Hanks Mel M. As a postpartum doula I have seen the affects (placebo or not) of my mamas taking the pills. I can tell when they haven’t taken them just after a few minutes. I fully believe in this beautiful, traditional practice as a postpartum regulator.
I am SHOCKED that Kim K would do something remotely in tune with her body, or some bring holistic.
And hey, I have doula sisters who make RAW placenta SMOOTHIES for clients which makes pills and tinctures seem easy to swallow!
A doula acquantaince of mine makes the raw shakes. I am not embarassed to say that that is a step too far for this squeamish gal.
@ Mel M – rock on. It’s difficult for me to tease out the teasing and mockery for the practice and for Kim here.
Well someone made bread with Vag yeast…so…
Someone mentioned that a C-section baby’s mouth may be swabbed with its mother’s vaginal secretions, to make up for the loss of such contact during a vaginal birth. Don’t know how common the practice is, but it seems like a sensible precaution.
She has the best doctors and medical care a woman can ask for, yet she takes medical advice from other selfish uneducated women. Just like a Tupperwear group. That’s how stupid she is !!
for me personally, i wouldn’t eat my placenta. i’ve had it in me for nine months and just managed to get rid of it, why would i want to put it in me again?
joking aside, doesn’t freeze drying just take away anything good of it? or put chemicals to it?
Freeze drying or dehydration keep most of the nutrients intact similar to regular food. (:
There are no randomized, placebo-controlled scientific studies on placenta eating. The only “studies” that have found benefit don’t adhere to scientific standards. I’m not familiar with how midwives control for this when they prepare the placenta, but it is not sterile and contains bacteria. Several investigations have found the placenta to be contaminated with selenium, cadmium, mercury, and lead, which would counter the claim that it can’t do any harm!
There never will be such studies. They are expensive and the profit potential just isn’t there. Clinical trials are actually difficult to evaluate also, hence the many contradictory studies.
Hmm how do you say for sure if it helped you lose weight or it warded off PPD – like there’s no control in that experiment! Even in the same woman pregnancy to pregnancy it isn’t a control as there are so many other contributing factors that could make you lose weight faster or not succumb to depression. I learnt about controls in science when I was about 12!
Maybe it’s a placebo effect, sure. That I could believe. But I don’t think I’ll spend money turning my body waste into something I eat unless science gives me a pretty good reason to.
Animals that eat their placentas are not the same – they don’t have supermarkets to buy food at, for one!
The scientific controls you learned about at 12 pertain to much simpler systems than the human body. There are huge problems in designing a control for clinical trials, even though they try to do something like having a group that does not receive the treatment or that receives the currently accepted treatment. There are simply too many variables involved for strict controls of the sort that I would accept as a scientist (I am a chemist and a physicist). Examining anecdotal evidence is a legitimate way to look for evidence of safety and efficacy in such a complicated situation.
It’s pretty common around the world and does have health benefits google it. She just wants people to get uppity bc it’s more publicity for her brand.
Sure she is. Just like the kid was due on Christmas day. This one never tells a lie!
I think it’s a bullshit fad for women with too much money. And gross too 👎
It’s not crazy expensive.
It’s around $250. To some that is costly, to others not so much.
@me: I paid $200, and I’ve heard it’s about that much across the board, so yeah. I felt it was completely worth it. See my two rants below, LOL! 😉 I’d also rather pay that and feel/look incredible than take Prozac while breastfeeding my baby and worry about those consequences. As I said downthread, I took Prozac with my first and it didn’t really work, and I took placenta pills with my second and had the happiest experience ever. Not to mention I looked amazing.
@ Careygloss
That’s great ! To each their own. Some women are grossed out by it, some are not. Some women say eating the placenta helped them tremendously, while others said it didn’t help at all. If you had to choose between prozac and placenta pills, you definitely made the right choice ! Better to go natural than deal with the side effects of prozac and harm to your baby.
For some perspective about cost: $200 is about what three weeks of antibiotics cost me during a bad UTI. Discount pharmacies sell some common medications for a few dollars as loss leaders, but I’m allergic to cipro and needed less common ones. And still that was relatively cheap. I ultimately spent several hundred dollars on just the antibiotics (needed more than three weeks).
Can’t stand kim but I consumed freeze dried capsules of my placenta with both my babies. Just finished my stash for the second yesterday actually! It’s anecdotal evidence sure, but there aren’t harmful effects… I don’t know if if helped or not, but depression and anxiety run in my family. Having newborns over the holidays is crazy stressful… But I’ve been good and no issues. Who knows if it was because of the placenta pills, but they didn’t hurt.
I can’t believe I’m defending Kim k. Had he’ll frozen over????
Was this your first baby? Congrats to you. I took placenta with my second and it was the best choice I’ve ever made. Made a huge difference compared to the first.
Thank you! I did it with my first (he just turned 2) and my second baby, she’s 8 weeks old.
Ok, been hearing about this and i am pregnant… Why wouldn’t you just support your system with herbs and stay nourished and hydrated sufficiently while recovering from childbirth? I mean to each their own but this seems like a very desperate measure… Like apocalyptic measures… Yeesh…..
I’m all over this board right now, so I’m sorry for that. I talked about my own experience extensively downthread, if you’d like to read it. Congratulations on your pregnancy! And I hope you feel great and that you and baby are healthy. I agree with you that taking in good food, etc is part of the bigger picture. I don’t like telling any woman what you should and shouldn’t do in general. But the placenta pills worked SO WELL for me, I can’t help but shout it from the rooftops. Even if a woman doesn’t suffer from PPD, I’d still recommend them because of what they did for my skin and hair. I’d still be taking them now if I hadn’t run out! And for me, it most definitely was a desperate measure. I never wanted to feel the way I did with my first baby ever again. Second baby was much easier on me, and I know the pills were part of that equation in a huge way. It’s fine with me if women don’t want to try this, but I wish people were more open to it because I think the overall benefits are wonderful, and they certainly won’t hurt you.
Disclaimer: I’m childless, but…
Please correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t there so scientific proof that consuming your own placenta actually helps a new mom (ie, breast milk production, weight loss, PPD)? How do women know that if they are experiencing the above symptoms, it’s all due to the placenta? Every woman’s body is different and experiences pregnancy differently.
To me, it smacks of this mommy competition, where women get pitted against each other over who has the “best” pregnancy and/or motherhood, which is sad and frustrating.
Having said that, while I can disagree with it all I like, I do support a woman’s right to decide what she wants to do with her own body. She’s not forcing me to eat it (because NO), so whatever. To each their own.
Mommy wars exist, and maybe doing the placenta thing won’t help every mother, but medical science has also covered up certain things in the past and present to gain money, so I don’t completely trust everything I hear about in the medical field. I have two kids. I did everything the “medical way” with the first kid and had a routine experience at the hospital. I felt like a customer who wasn’t really cared about, and I paid about $10,000 in bills. I also nearly died from PPD. Then I had my second kid about four years later. He was three pounds heavier and the pregnancy, while healthy, was a bit more complicated. I had that one at home with the loving support of a midwife. I tore less than I did with my first because they knew how to position me. I took my placenta pills, and after taking them for a week, I had no PPD anymore whatsoever. I felt like the experience was empowering and healthier because I was treated better and had more support from my midwife. And I paid a whopping $2000 for the entire experience, which included more pre and post visits from my midwife who spent an hour with me each time (compared to the 5 minute doctor visits you get at a clinic). She also stayed a full day after my baby was born and helped to clean and cook for me. I KNOW that the pills helped me. With both kids, I felt the depression come on about 24 hours after baby was born, but the pills worked. I don’t believe it was a placebo affect, because I was scared about whether they would work or not and I never once believed that they would because someone suggested it to me. I was just willing to try ANYTHING to keep from feeling that terribly ever again. And I was also prepared to take Prozac again if the placenta didn’t work. But it did. And I wish I hadn’t run out of them because not only did they help with PPD, they made my skin and hair look amazing. People need to be open to trying new things. Our bodies are natural, and the earth provides natural resources to help us with almost every ailment. Those same resources have been ripped off and re-created in a lab to make pharmaceuticals in higher doses with huge chemical intake per dose. Women have been having babies for millions of years, and not everything you hear about their being in danger is true. Hospitals need you to do things their way, and their research is going to reflect that. I don’t care if I sound like a hippy right now. I’m not completely against the medical community, but believe me when I say I’ve seen enough in my own life that I’m a little disillusioned with it. My own husband studied to be a nurse and then backed out because he saw disturbing practices that went on. Most of which were to gain money only. I NEVER judge another woman for wanting to have her baby in whatever way she chooses. It’s her body, and I respect her choice to listen to it. But holistic medicine deserves the same respect. If we support women in making their own choices, we need to support the availability of ALL choices, and education behind those choices, too. I’m sorry for the rant, and I never talk about these experiences unless other women ask me about it, but the level of judgement on this board is disturbing. Don’t knock it until you try it.
Your story is pretty powerful evidence, but you’ll still find many people who will try to dismiss it. This is a strange modern phenomenon based on misunderstanding of real science and medicine and how treatments come to be. If you take an aspirin for a headache and the headache clears, the aspirin gets the credit. If the headache doesn’t clear, nobody says “See? Aspirin doesn’t work! Any time the headache does clear, it’s just the placebo effect or a coincidence!”. Instead, it’s accepted that not every headache responds to aspirin because individuals and their headaches are all different or the high doses required for an effect may cause other problems. And yet the mechanism for the effect of aspirin was unknown for a long time, as for the plant material from which it was extracted and which had been in use for many generations. This is really true for many prescription meds as well- we don’t have such a thorough understanding of how they work as many people assume, and sometimes we’re completely wrong about the mechanism.
Medicine still involves a lot of trial and error because the systems involved are so complicated, and medical thinking about disease and how to treat is is constantly in flux. Even 180 degree reversals occur in recommended therapies. Scientific research tries to put it together in a reasonable framework, but it’s very slow going. We just learn bits and pieces of the puzzle at a time. There is no central agency that maps out the course of research – each group is guided more by the possibility of getting funding (people have to get paid) and so it’s all far more chaotic than non-scientists realize. Waiting for the ultimate “scientific proof” for a treatment of a condition you’re suffering from now is unrealistic. We have to be our own detectives. Safety is the major issue, and traditional therapies in long-time use typically have more solid information available on that score than modern prescription drugs (often serious problems don’t surface until long after marketing approval is obtained, and some people like me are very prone to getting side effects). Efficacy will vary, as it does for every treatment, but if it’s safe and cheap and your current treatment is unsatisfactory – go ahead and try it.
That was the only thing I wrote on my birth plan, to not see my placentas (non-id twins). They make me feel physically sick. I had this weird thing when I was pregnant where I’d google pictures of placentas and sit there borking. If it works for some people then great, but as my spirit animal Amy says “Good for you. Not for me”
I’m actually shocked at most of these comments. So you won’t try anything holistic because it’s “stupid” and hasn’t been “proven” by doctors and research hospitals who stand to gain millions by telling you you need what they have to offer and what they have to offer only? Really??? Ok. I went through severe post partum psychosis after the birth of my first at age 25. I wanted to die. I wanted to take her with me off the top of a building. I hallucinated. I had fits of rage. I had violent thoughts and violent dreams. I had panic attacks and feelings of literally being alone in the universe. I felt completely alien. Most of the first six months after she was born were dark. I realized and recognized what was happening to me hours after the baby was born. I asked my doctor immediately for help in managing PPD, and he put me on Prozac. When I asked if this would affect the baby, he said it would, but that they had no recommendations otherwise, and that I’d either take it or I’d probably end up committing crimes, including suicide. So I took it. It took the edge off some days, but didn’t do much. When I became pregnant with my second, I found myself irrationally scared to go to the hospital or listen to medical advice much. I realized later that it’s because I didn’t feel supported at all. But I was desperate to stave off the PPD this time, so I tried everything I read about in every holistic circle. I had my baby at home and endured the pain so I wouldn’t be given the huge dose of depressive drugs that make up the epidural (that can REALLY add to PPD in women that are prone). And I had my placenta encapsulated. These two things are some of the smartest decisions I’ve ever made. I can’t even describe how much healthier I was overall, and how much better the recovery was. That’s even considering the fact that my second baby was three full pounds heavier than my first. I felt the depression come on the same way it had come after my first baby, but this time I was prepared. I started taking the pills immediately. During that first week, I could feel myself dipping into despair, but I’d take my pills and it was like being raised from the dead. 20 minutes would go by and I’d feel better. After that first week, I was steadily on them and I’d had them in my system for a bit, so I never dipped again. Honestly, if I have another kid I’ll do it for sure. Both the natural pregnancy and the pills. If I could buy other women’s pills on the black market, I’d do that too. Proudly. Because it helps stave off aging and menopause. To say that it doesn’t help is ignorance. There are many profound and beautiful ways of treating our bodies that haven’t been “proven” yet, but someday I really think science will catch up. Don’t diss something just because you’ve never heard of it. Especially if you’ve never tried it! I don’t consider myself a better person or mother because I made those choices, but I know that they helped me. I know it beyond a shadow of a doubt. And I’m a little shocked at how open these comments…aren’t. Don’t knock it before you give it a try. Or suffer when you have babies, I guess. It’s up to you.
Cool story. You can avoid the epidural at the hospital by simply requesting not to have one, FYI! They’re not mandatory. Also, if your ob was incompetent and couldn’t rx you something different after Prozac failed, you should have replaced him and not risked your child and your own life giving birth at home. It’s not as simple as “eat your placenta or suffer.”
Trying to go without an epidural at the hospital is like inviting an alcoholic to a bar and then wondering why they can’t stave off the pressure to drink. I tried going without one with my first child, but was eventually pressured into doing it by the staff, who don’t like dealing with loud women in their wards. So…no. It’s not mandatory. But if you walk in there, without a doula, and labor actively for more than a few hours and still manage NOT to have one, I’m going to assume you’re bionic. I went six hours before I caved. And no, it’s not life-threatening to have your baby at home. Most midwives have seen hundreds, if not thousands, of healthy births, whereas doctors are literally taught to see the pathology in the process, and assume that it’s dangerous for every woman. Midwives have practical screening processes to help determine if the woman is healthy enough to undertake a home birth. Here’s a fun fact to tie it all together: nurses and doctors were on edge throughout my first labor, trying to get me to have a c-section. Every time I’d have a large contraction, baby’s heart rate would dip ever so slightly. So obviously, I panicked with them. She was a healthy 7lbs, born vaginally. Everyone in the room went on and on about how I was “so lucky” and that my baby was in very real danger. They told me my labor was “too long”. It was only later, after doing heavy reading about midwifery practices, that I learned that a slight dip in heart rate during contractions is completely normal, and that my 12 hour labor was actually remarkably short compared to the average amount of time labor can take for a first baby. As you already read, baby #2 was three pounds heavier. I tore less because midwives won’t make you labor on your back. And I recovered faster. WHERE you have a baby is a matter of choice based on your intuition and your situation. But women don’t primarily need a surgeon to give birth. Our bodies are awesome. And again, why on earth would I take drugs that can harm my kid when the placenta pills worked better, faster, are all natural/harmless and are more cost effective?!? Every doctor I’ve asked during and since that time has admitted to me that while they know drugs are passed on to baby through the milk, it’s too soon in this century to know how they’ll be adversely affected by it. If a mother feels like it’s in her best interest, and the baby’s (as I did) to take the drugs, more power to her. There’s no harm in trying the placenta though, and if all of this is still so much a foreign concept that we have a general reaction like most of the comments on this liberal board? I need to talk about this more, apparently. So thanks for providing me with an opportunity to contradict you. 🙂
Thank you for sharing. Eating the placenta is not new or all that weird. I had my children in the early eighties, my aunts in the early 60s. It was no big deal in either of our circles. Women found it very beneficial. Also, many of my friends buried their’s under a tree or shrub on their properties.
This is actually common in some cultures, if I recall, but fairly recent to the States. I’ve heard mixed responses from friends who have done it. One didn’t see much of a change, but the friend I had who suffers from a serious autoimmune disease experienced a lot of benefits when she took them. It was one of the few times in her life when her vitamin and mineral levels were at healthy levels.
My feeling is – placebo effect or otherwise, if a woman feels better doing it, why the hell not?
“Why the hell not,” indeed!! My initial response is “yuck!”, but I’ve taken supplements that were prescribed that included “bovine adrenals” in the ingredients and there is a medicine prescribed widely in the mainstream market containing pig thyroid. So, is this different? It is gross to think of doing, yes, but I suffered from PPD (PPA, anxiety, actually) with my children, and I’d try anything for that to not happen again!
I guess as gross as it is, we consume so much crap that’s just as gross and worse for you. Read into hot dogs.
She is such a liar. I believe she is fabricating all of these “natural” aspects of her pregnancy because it’s really trendy to do so. With placenta accreta there is NO WAY she gave birth vaginally as she claims. And I’m sure this placenta thing is another lie, an attempt at being a trendy crunchy mama. Next we will hear about all of her breastfeeding struggles and triumphs (all fake I’m sure) mark my words!
Kim Kartrashian isa pimple on the butt cheek of life
This is one of the smartest things she’s ever said and done, in my opinion. She should already be doing it if she isn’t by now, since it’s been over a week.
Whatever works for her, so be it. Her placenta, her body. Have at it Kim.
But I do wonder why these celebs feel the need to share such private information with the public.