Autocannibalism in Pill Form

February 1, 2012 8:16 AM

So. Placenta encapsulation. Is there actually any scientific basis for the practice?

I'm due to give birth in a week and a half, and I have just now found out about placenta encapsulation via the childbirth class I've been taking. However, I haven't been able to find any hard evidence of its effectiveness. Have you heard of it? Is it anything but placebo effect woo? Normally I wouldn't bother, especially since it sounds kind of gross. However, I am somewhat concerned about postpartum depression and low energy levels, which this theoretically helps with. So... if you do know anything, please share!

posted by daikaisho to health & fitness (20 answers total)

I couldn't find any evidence when my wife was giving birth. She is a doctor and was 190% skeptical. Even the Douala service/classes that were offering to make placenta pills had a disclaimer on their site about their claims not being verifiable.

That was enough for me to dismiss it.
posted by LeanGreen at 8:35 AM on February 1

I researched this when a prospective doula mentioned it, and couldn't find anything but woo. I also found another doula (she also suggested I use garlic to avoid testing GBS+). I only mention this because this type of woo is usually accompanied by other woos, and you might want to do due diligence on other reccomedations from your class.
posted by snickerdoodle at 8:47 AM on February 1

I have a sister who is so totally into woo it's ridiculous, and her pregnancy and birth were filled with practices that I thought utterly insane. But even she didn't do this.
posted by BlahLaLa at 8:53 AM on February 1 [1 favorite]

Awesome. I thought it sounded more than a little crazy, but given that the rest of the class (Bradley Method) had mostly been woo-light education about the birth process, various procedures that could occur during childbirth, and relaxation techniques, I wasn't quite sure. (That and I've got a killer dose of Pregnant Brain, which isn't really helping clear thinking at this point.)
posted by daikaisho at 8:57 AM on February 1

Friends who have done it have found it helpful. I don't know that there have been a lot of studies done, but am curious to see if you turn up any.
posted by judith at 9:05 AM on February 1

This article convinced me to do it (I'm due in May). I didn't get a sense of woo at all. Here's some info from the doula who will be encapsulating my placenta. The site also has a link to lots of research, which I haven't looked at yet myself.
posted by foxjacket at 9:21 AM on February 1

The site foxjacket links to contains a bunch of claims that are easily proved false. For instance, they suggest that eating placenta is good because it has "Oxytocin - for pain and bonding; produced during breastfeeding to facilitate bonding of mother and infant. In pharmaceutical form this is a very addictive drug because it promotes a feeling of connectedness with others and is often referred to as the “love” hormone", but oxytocin is destroyed in the GI tract, and needs to be administered by injection if given as a medication.
posted by OmieWise at 9:35 AM on February 1 [8 favorites]

Wikipedia has some interesting info about the practice, and the placenta contains hormones like oxytocin and prostaglandin. I don't know what the encapsulation process does to those hormones, or the digestive process, for that matter.

As a scientist, I have a very hostile reaction to woo, but I also acknowledge that science doesn't know everything about the human body yet, and that the modern medical establishment does have a big bias against both women and against traditional remedies. And that the rat pain-measurement experiment cited in the widipedia article is pretty tenuous, as the type of pain experienced from a foot shock is not a good stand-in for the type of pain experienced postpartum.

My final analysis: can't hurt, might help, but should never be used as a replacement for anything more tangible. Don't pay more than 200 dollars for it.
posted by Jon_Evil at 9:42 AM on February 1 [2 favorites]

Even worse, the PlacentaMom article confuses oxytocin with oxycontin. Oxytocin is the the hormone produced in the human body that's associated with bonding feelings. Oxycontin is the addictive painkiller. That author has no clue what they're talking about.
posted by TungstenChef at 10:08 AM on February 1 [4 favorites]

Only anecdotal I'm afraid, but thought you might want some balance from the other side as everyone seems very down on it here!

My sister-in-law ate hers (my brother cooked it for her!) and her previously very low iron levels not only replenished but were higher than pre-birth (and extra blood-loss) when tested by doctors. Apparently said doctors were fascinated by this and mumbled about investigating further, but never did.

She was hoping to avoid continuing to take iron supplements, so she was delighted with this. Could be unrelated of course, but there it is anyway.
posted by greenish at 10:49 AM on February 1 [1 favorite]

Disclaimer: I encapsulate placentas on the side. I have taken placenta pills during a post partum period, and when my next baby is born in two months or so, I plan to encapsulate that placenta.

I can't say that I have any scientific proof, or that it is any more effective than placebo, but I believe strongly that taking encapsulated placenta pills helps post partum. It boosts milk supply and it helps even out hormonal mood swings. Who cares if it's placebo effect if it works? It certainly doesn't hurt.

Humans are the only mammal besides camels that doesn't routinely consume their placenta. It's the only cruelty free meat- it might be "gross" in our culture, but you know exactly where that placenta has been and what's in it. You can't say that about anything else you eat. It has hormones in it made by your own body.

I don't know of anyone who has done it that hasn't noticed some difference in their postpartum experience between the baby were they didn't take placenta and the baby that they did. I have personally witnessed placenta stop post partum hemorrhaging. I have had women who needed to supplement breastfeeding with donor milk for their fist baby produce enough milk with their second. I have had women need prescription anti-depressants with their first do totally fine with their second. All of these things are purely anecdotal and yes, I know that correlation does not equal causation, but like I said previously: what if it is the placenta, even if it's a placebo effect? It doesn't hurt a single thing to try it- not one thing. If you want to do it- then do it. Personally, I think it's worth every penny.
posted by LyndsayMW at 10:52 AM on February 1

If nothing else, the placenta is full of super protein.

Protein does indeed boost milk supply and does indeed provide energy. It stands to reason that the protein aspects of the placenta could be very beneficial to a woman post-partum for those reasons.

But you could probably also eat a steak for the protein.

That said, there are plenty of individual mammals that DO NOT eat the placenta. Not every cat, for example, will eat a placenta. Talk to people who breed animals if you want to know about that, so that claim is false.

I wasn't particularly attached to doing anything with my placenta, but I guess it's going to be used in a class for future midwives, so that's my contribution to science right there. And a pretty awesome one, if I say so myself. BUT, I never faulted anyone who wanted to try ingesting a placenta or plant it with a tree or any other such thing. It is the thing that helped get nutrients to your baby. That's a pretty awesome thing to have done! And I honestly don't see how it hurts in any way.....
posted by zizzle at 11:26 AM on February 1 [1 favorite]

This article convinced me to do it

It's worth noting that that article offers nothing but anecdotal evidence and straight up acknowledges that there is no scientific evidence supporting the practice.
posted by yoink at 12:21 PM on February 1

"Not every cat, for example, will eat a placenta. "

While this is true, not every cat will mother her litter either. Some, in fact, will eat their kittens, even when nothing discernibly stressful is going on around them at the time. The animal kingdom is filled with as much variety as the human. (gay penguins! But not every penguin is gay!)

So, eh. Eat your placenta if you want. Have it pulverized if you want.

But don't let eating or not eating the thing prevent you from seeking other help post-partum. Nutrtional counseling, therapy, PPD investigation, pain management, lactation consulting. Do not feel like you have to be a hero, there are people out there who are equipped and qualified to make your life easier. If you come across someone who is a jerk about it, fire them and find someone else.
posted by bilabial at 12:40 PM on February 1 [1 favorite]

Anthropologist here. Mammals eat their placenta because they're mostly in danger of malnutrition all the time. Mammal mothers invest huge amounts of their nutrition into the process of creating a baby. After the birth, the placenta represents thousands of calories and vital minerals, just laying there. To a mammal mother, that can mean life or death, so there's a strong evolutionary pressure to consume the placenta. You are not a mammal on the edge of starvation, you do not need those calories like a chimpanzee mother does. The hormonal arguments are woo unless proven by rigorous studies. Hormones are made of chemicals that are easy to digest, so it would need to be proven that they could pass the digestive system and be absorbed in large enough amounts to have an effect.
posted by TungstenChef at 12:48 PM on February 1 [12 favorites]

I had mine in a smoothie, or rather, several smoothies, with yogurt and frozen berries. Didn't taste disgusting or anything. The idea of ingesting the placenta made sense to me (most mammals do, and it is far from proven that this is only for calories...), but 'encapsulation' seemed like a waste of money, everything I read about it sounded like silly woo-woo, and finally it seems unlikely this technique would be more effective then eating the thing straight.
I felt fabulous in the weeks/days after my birth and had zero postpartum complications - even though I had previously battled with hormone-related depression and was very afraid of getting PPD.
Of course I have no idea whether there's a causal relationship between my eating the placenta and my good postpartum health. I guess probably not. But since the placenta doesn't cost anything and adverse effects from eating it have never been reported, I would do it the same way with my next child's placenta.
(Added plus: Makes for a killer story.)
posted by The Toad at 1:25 PM on February 1 [1 favorite]

...and to answer your question, I would save the money for encapsulation and spend it on healthy food for the postpartum period (think Whole Foods takeout) - much more likely to improve your energy levels, and you're going to be hungry. Good luck!
posted by The Toad at 1:30 PM on February 1

My wife and I teach natural childbirth classes. My wife had placenta capsules made after one of her births, and took them even though they grossed her out. (She found that she got a taste in her mouth a while after swallowing the capsules. It was unpleasant, to say the least.)

The one where she took placental capsules was the hardest of her three postpartum recoveries. This proves that they don't work worth a damn. Or does it prove that it would have been a way harder recovery if she hadn't taken them? Hmm....

The problem here is that all of these one-off stories are anecdotal; it's not proving anything if somebody took the pills and had a great postpartum recovery. That's not how science works.

Personally, though IANAD, I suspect the explanation for the behavior in the wider mammal population is nutritional, rather than hormonal, as TungstenChef suggests. So when it comes up in our classes, we say, no strong evidence either way, do it if you want, we didn't feel they were magically effective when we tried it.
posted by richyoung at 1:40 PM on February 1 [3 favorites]

A thousand apologies if I am threadjacking, and please delete this comment if it is misplaced....but can anyone here explain the usage of the word "woo" in this post, or link to some site that discusses it?

At first I thought it was a unique, random word that the OP was using, but I was surprised to see so many others use it as well as if it were an actual concept, so I'm assuming now it must be! Google has completely failed me though; every search I've tried turns up mostly "woo hoo I'm pregnant!" or "woo hoo I found a doula!" comments.

Does it specifically have to do with alternative birthing methods? Or is it related simply to placebo effects?
posted by Squee at 8:06 PM on February 1

Squee, it is a mildly derisive colloquialism for way-out-there beliefs. Formerly 'woo woo' but who has time to type all that? Urban dictionary definition here.
posted by richyoung at 8:23 PM on February 1 [1 favorite]