I’ve acquired new learning.
And anytime I have new learning, I must share it. It’s just something about me. Maybe that’s why I teach. I want everyone to have the same knowledge I have, regardless how inane, unimportant, or disturbing it might be. And I repeat disturbing.
Today’s new tidbit may fall in one or more of the previous categories. I repeat disturbing.
I was perusing some blogs about simple living etc. and I came upon a post that caught my eye. And made my mouth gape open. It was truly unbelievable to me at first. Then I read more, and more, and the more I read, the more fascinated I became, the more I wanted to know, so I googled it and found it to be a semi-common practice.
I guess I just need to come out and say it.
{Deep Breath}
Okay.
I’m ready.
{Exhale}
It’s the practice of placenta eating.
No need to reread that. I said placenta eating. As in afterbirth. As in eating afterbirth.
I KNOW!! I KNOW!! That was my reaction completely.
Can you believe this?????
The first time I heard about it, was on a blog of a lady who lives out in the boonies. She was having a complete natural childbirth in a water bath with midwives in her home. She said after watching her goat give birth, and afterward eating the afterbirth, she realized what a natural thing it was, and that she planned on eating her placenta. All mammals (except humans) do this. It’s just a natural instinct in the animal world. So her husband saved her afterbirth, cooked it down, and ground it into capsules for her to take after her childbirth.
After reading her blog, I was all like, *blink blink* these are a bunch of backwards hillbillies. Just look at what happens when people marry their cousins.
I was horrified. But then I began to question, what if? I’ve mentioned before that I believe there are healing elements all around us, in plants and in nature. Maybe just maybe, the civilized part of us Westerners hinder us from attaining it, because certain things seem so barbaric. Like say, eating our placentas.
After my initial horrification(not sure if that’s a real word) wore off, I began to see this as completely natural, and dare I say, even beautiful.
It’s actually called placentophagia and is practiced around the world, although discouraged in the western world. Why would women do this, you may be thinking? The potential benefits of eating the placenta include: staving off post pardum depression, replenishing nutrients, increasing breast milk production, and helping the uterus heal and tone itself back up.
In my google search, I found there are actually women who eat their placentas raw, and then others cook it up and make capsules.
Here’s a You tube video I found of a professional placenta chef.
The strange thing is, this isn’t the first time afterbirth has appeared on my blog.
And it’s not likely to be the last.
Angel Wheeler 