Hilary Duff and her boyfriend, musician Matthew Koma, welcomed their first child together, daughter Banks Violet Bair, about two weeks ago. I said at the time that Banks wasn’t a bad name, but that it sounds like a nickname or a stage name. It’s unique without being too strange. Well Hilary is a celebrity and she’s not immune to strange childbirth trends. She recently revealed that she had her placenta put into a smoothie and that it was delicious. Did she have some fava beans and a nice chianti with it too? Hilary isn’t the only celebrity to have done this. Both January Jones and Kim Kardashian had their placentas freeze dried and made into pills while Gaby Hoffman also consumed placenta smoothies “for weeks.” Hilary also revealed that she did DIY smoothies in that she froze her own placenta after she had a natural at home childbirth.
While appearing on Dr. Elliot Berlin’s Informed Pregnancy podcast (released Thursday but recorded 10 days after the arrival of her second child, daughter Banks Violet) the actress, 31, revealed that she drank her placenta in a smoothie and it was “delicious.”
“It was the most delightful smoothie I’ve ever had,” she said. “I haven’t had a smoothie that delightful since I was ten. It was calorie-filled with juice and fruit and everything delicious.”
Although Duff was initially hesitant to eat the placenta — “I was a little wigged out, to be honest with you,” the actress said — she explained that the theories claiming it would prevent post-partum depression and stop the post-birth bleeding were enough to convince her to try it.
Since drinking her placenta for the first time, Duff explained that she’s been feeling great and has been consuming the rest of it in ice cube form to avoid taking pills. “I heard something weird about pills,” she said. “I heard placenta burps are not ideal.”
As for Duff’s 6-year-old son Luca Cruz, she said he was interested at first, but after learning that her temporary organ was in the freezer, he told her “I wish I hadn’t have asked…”
Duff and her boyfriend Matthew Koma welcomed their first child together on Oct. 25. The actress had an at-home, “natural, drug-free,” water birth and said she was in labor for quite a while before her daughter arrived after “like, five pushes.”
There is a long history of human mothers consuming their placentas and it’s more common in some cultures. Many animals do it as well. However “there’s not much evidence that the practice actually benefits humans” according to Heidi Murkoff, the author of What to Expect When You’re Expecting. It doesn’t seem to be harmful as long as you prepare it like any other uh meat. Some doctors discourage it though. I would maybe take the placenta pills, but drinking smoothies with it sounds gross. It would be like drinking a smoothie with a raw organ meat like liver. As for Hilary’s birth it sounds like she’s exaggerating about how quick it was, but it was her second child and many women say it’s so much easier the second time.
This is a sponcon but I needed the picture to make the image for the front page.
Okay, I can understand the theory behind placenta eating. It’s not for me, but I can see how it would appeal to some people. If I was into myself I’d go the encapsulation route, not with a smoothie. Ugh. Liver smoothie, indeed.
Nevermind all that.
I’m stuck on her face. Why, Hilary Duff, why?
Not sure “appeal” is the best choice fo words here lol. I can’t imagine being with someone who ate their placenta and having to kiss them afterwards. Sorry, just no.
Aw, cute baby. But what is up with the gross headlines today?!?
I think the only way I would have consumed my placenta is if it guaranteed that my kids would be immune from harm and fear and heartbreak and pain. So, yeah, not gonna happen.
I’m with you. Just no
Exactly. Placenta eating is just a step too far – especially without any real medical evidence. I guess it’s probably not any different to eating other meat but the thought makes me feel queasy.
As for the speed of the birth, I think 5 pushes for a second baby could easily be possible. My second was born at home by accident because the labour was only 1/2 hour long and he came out in 2 pushes (after I’d spent ages trying to hold him in, convinced the paramedics would get me to hospital in time). Child birth is such an individual thing.
It says the labour itself was long but the pushing was short. Seems reasonable. It’s not like the movies where you’re actively pushing for hours. It’s the contractions that take a while
Keep in mind that there’s not a lot of evidence because women’s reproductive health is still pretty low on the research totem-pole.
I mean, you do you, Hils. I’m just…
*eyes smoothie at desk suspiciously*
Coffee. Yeah. I need some coffee.
Yeah, I couldn’t. I just know I couldn’t do that. I at least can wrap my head around the capsule vitamin way of doing it….but even then, I can’t imagine it for myself. But the smoothie aspect kind of turns me off smoothies a bit.
eating placentas=Western magic
Straight-up cannibalism.
Yes. Thank you. I realized that I have a problem with it and not only because it’s gross. But when you mentioned cannibalism, I realized what the problem is exactly
If it’s part of your own body is it still technically cannibalism?
It is, it’s self-inflicted.
Fingernail biting.
That’s precisely how I view it. Cannibalism. Gross.
Nas-tay.
Yuc-kay.
seconded. and the beautifying of childbirth. its not magical. its messy, hurts like hell and bits of you get torn up. plus your pelvic floor gets scuppered and you need to pee every ten minutes. girl needs to say it how it is.
Hmm.. animals eat it out of necessity. Basically to ward off intruders sniffing around so the mom and babies don’t become prey. Also makes sense because they can’t really leave their newborn litters and go hunt or forage for food, so they eat what they have..uh..on hand, so to speak. Sure there are lots of claims of health benefits, but I think they are exaggerated and just another fad for wealthy women.
Also, side note : I own and operate a freeze drying business and run 4 machines and no I would NEVER do this, even though I have “free” access to it.
Couldn’t have said it better myself!
Non-human predators would have no trouble picking up the scent of mama and babies, with or without a placenta. More likely she’s hungry after birthing all those babies and it’s a piece of meat.
banks
ugh
I know!
“Not a bad name” – I strongly disagree, it’s a pretentious, plural word that doesn’t even
sound pleasing – really terribly bad
I am currently 18 weeks pregnant with my 3rd child. I will admit I looked into having my placenta encapsulated after the baby is born. I, like many others, had read about the supposed health benefits of doing so. But after researching the topic I could not find concrete evidence to suggest there is benefit. And why would you want to eat the organ that filtered out toxins from your baby, seems counterproductive. There has been at least one confirmed case of an infant being hospitalized after the mother consumed her placenta, which was found to contain Group B Strep. For those that want to do so, as long as it is safely done, have at it but take necessary safety precautions.
Oh hey, that’s a great reason not to!
I mean… you do you. As long as you’re not judging me for taking a hard pass on that, cool with me!
I know many women that had it made into pills. My doctor showed me mine after I had my second (actually he showed the nurse, it was a learning hospital) and there’s no way I was gonna eat that thing.
My son had the nurses scrambling. They didn’t believe I was actually in labor and after sending my husband to the car to get the bags I had to convince the nurses I wanted to push. At one point everybody left the room and I was sure I’d deliver him myself – after two pushes he was there. So I can believe her birth story. Sometimes they just really want to come out.
I ate mine in smoothies as well. It was great, I would definitely do it again. I was sad when I had one piece left and made the last smoothie. Hard to explain, it took me back, like why does this make me sad. Strange times, indeed. But I had great energy and did not get post-partum depression which was my main reason for consuming it.
As someone whose never had children, I am aware, I just wouln’t understand, but I did just gag reading that headline 🙁
Yeah, no, women should not do this. Animals will eat the placenta to keep predators away, but we don’t have to worry about lions smelling the blood and coming to eat us. We also aren’t malnourished to the point of having to eat our placenta to gain nutrients after labour. Also, there’s nothing magical about a placenta: you wouldn’t eat your own liver so why would you eat that?! Moreover, one of the placenta’s goals is to protect the foetus from getting harmful stuff coming in; just like the liver, it filters what comes in to a certain extent, but there can be a bioaccumulation of harmful stuff in there. And the moment is get out of your body, it encounters tons of bacteria that sees it as the perfect place to grow, which is why the placenta pills are also super sketchy since you have very little idea of those were processed… So seriously, there’s no science that backs placenta-eating. And despite what some might claim, there are no ancient communities that traditionally ate the placenta, there’s absolutely no records of that anywhere.
It’s some GOOP-level of quackery targeting rich white women
Agreed. I work in healthcare with nurses. This was a topic of conversation at a colleague’s baby shower the other day…male coworker too.
They were all saying it’s ridiculous and there is no evidence that this is beneficial. In medicine it’s all about showing evidence something helps.
We already have postpartum depression for men, dad bod… and now they have made babyshowers about themselves too?
I’m pretty sure Gina meant it was a co-ed babyshower where people of all genders were invited which makes sense since people of all genders will help make sure that the baby feels loved and is taken cared of.
Anyhow, yes, I don’t think that anyone with some background in science/health science would push for placenta-eating. There’s just no science, “hard” or anthropology, that backs this practice. It’s not ancient wisdom, there’s nothing in the placenta that isn’t found in anything else, there are risks associated to it, eaten raw or dried in a pill, it’s quackery.
What would be better would be to promote giving the cord blood to a public bank. That could save lives, your baby’s included
There is no scientific proof that eating your placenta is beneficial and the only people who regularly eat their placenta are rich women from well developed countries (re QI). They are basically eating their unborn baby’s sewage system.
This truly turned my stomach and I’m an ER nurse lol. This sounds like pseudoscience weirdness to me but whatever, not my placenta not my body 🤷🏾♀️
I froze my placenta and put it into smoothies. Berry smoothies to um cover the color. Tasted fine and I had tons of energy, no mood dips and recovered quickly. Works
There’s no evidence that you wouldn’t have had an easy recovery without it though, that’s the case for most women after all. But I’m glad the placebo effect worked in your case and that there weren’t any complications, that’s always good to hear.
Gotta love the placenta *cough cough* err i mean placebo effect
No comment on the placenta eating, but that pic is SO photoshopped! It doesn’t even look like her!
I pushed for about half an hour with my oldest son because he got stuck twice, with my daughter it took 4 pushed to get her down and out and with my 5 month old son he was down and out in 2 and a half pushes only because halfway through my second push the doctor had me stop because she wasn’t expecting him to come out so fast so I had to push one more time. All three were long excruciating labors. My doctor has said though that I am a very good pusher and apparently I have ‘hips’ for child bearing.
I read a really interesting article from a woman who’d had the capsules made. She said she was so skeptical of ‘western’ medicine and such a promoter of doing your own research but after she had a weird reaction to the capsules she realised she hadn’t questioned a single thing about them. She had no idea what else was in them, no idea about the safety practices in making them or really anything to do with the research around them. It just goes to show if something fits in with your particular brand of woo you’ll overlook a lot of what you should be examining, particularly in a pretty unregulated corner of the health world.
Ick. I’m not eating any of my organs…
Or any human bits and pieces for that matter.
*dry heaves*
I thought it was Tori Spelling in the header pic!