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Placenta Remedies: Nature’s Script for a happier, healthier postpartum!

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Click on this picture to view a short segment on the use of placenta remedies for postpartum recovery that several of my clients and I were interviewed for. The segment aired in November on CTV Live at 5

For thousands of years, midwives and Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioners have revered the placenta as a powerful source of rejuvenating medicine. Many mothers worldwide benefit from its healing properties, and honour the placenta in ceremony for sustaining the life of the child in the womb. More and more women in our culture are embracing the time-tested wisdom of placental remedies, and are rediscovering how these remedies can transform their postpartum experience.

Properties and Benefits

The placenta contains a rich array of the mother’s own hormones and other factors that act to promote milk production, bonding, and recovery; boost her energy and immune function; and reduce inflammation, postpartum bleeding, stress, and baby blues, including:

Prolactin: promotes lactation (breastmilk production).
Oxytocin: helps uterus contract down to pre-pregnant size, promotes bonding by increasing feelings of love and connectedness, facilitates breastmilk ejection reflex (milk let-down)
Thyroid stimulating hormone: boosts energy and recovery from stressful events.
Cortisone: combats stress, unlocks energy stores, reduces inflammation and pain
Interferon: stimulates the immune system to protect against infections.
Prostaglandins: reduces inflammation
Urokinase inhibiting factor: reduces bleeding and enhances wound healing.
Gammaglobulin: immune booster that helps protect against infections.

It also contains high levels of nutrients and minerals to help the mother recover and rebuild from her pregnancy and childbirth, most notably:

Iron – essential for oxygen absorption and transport,
vitamins B6 – aids in the making of antibodies and hemoglobin, helps cope with stress
Vitamin E – assists healing damaged skin, prevents oxidative damage to cells, reduces pain from uterine cramps

Although the Colchester Regional Hospital has revised their policy to allow the release of healthy placentas as per recommendations by Public Health, my last two Truro based clients have been denied the release of their placentas. If you are a Truro client, please contact me to discuss the possibility of placenta remedy preparation.

I provide the following Placenta Services to families across Nova Scotia:

Placenta Encapsulation

Placenta encapsulation is the process of carefully preparing your placenta to create placenta pills/capsules. This is a very popular placental remedy, as encapsulation provides a convenient, tasteless, and palatable mode of consumption. New mothers can adjust their intake to prolong the benefits of their remedy throughout the first month postpartum, and capsules can also be stored for later use. Your placenta capsules are rich in iron, B vitamins, nutrients and minerals, as well as your own hormones to facilitate an easier postpartum recovery. Mothers who consume their placenta capsules report a faster, more pleasant postpartum recovery, with increased energy and milk production, and decreased postpartum bleeding and emotional challenges such as the “baby blues” and emotional imbalance.

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) method

Following a Traditional Chinese Medicine recipe, I gently steam the placenta over lemon, ginger, peppers, and specific herbs according to the mother’s birth. This method creates a remedy that is tonifying and warming for the new mother as TCM practitioners believe that women should consume only warming foods and beverages after birth, to rebuild vital Qi energy. I then dehydrate the placenta, grind it into a fine powder, and encapsulate it. This remedy is said to promote a gentle, sustained rise in energy and emotional well-being production as the new mother recovers from the birth. Although placenta encapsulation is a relatively new method of ingesting the placenta, the Traditional Chinese Medicine model has been using placenta medicines safely and successfully used for over a thousand years, TCM preparation yeilds abour 30% fewer capsules than does Raw preparation.

Raw Foods method

Some people are concerned that the steaming process in the TCM method may decrease nutrient and hormone levels, and wish to consume the placenta in its raw state. Preliminary findings from current research at UNLV indicate that TCM preparation does not reduce or destroy any of the analytes tested, however research is ongoing, Certainly all other placental mammals consumer the placenta in its raw state, and many mothers identify with this. To prepare the placenta according to the raw foods method, I dry the placenta over very low heat, grind it into a fine powder, and encapsulate it. This preparation method produces remedy that is said to be more cooling in nature, and mothers often reports that it “packs a punch”, providing a more immediate and significant (but less sustained) burst of energy and emotional well-being after consumption of the capsules. Raw preparation will yield about 30% more capsules than will TCM preparation.

Placenta Tincture

Placenta tinctures are a wonderful modality to extend the benefits of placenta remedies for a lifetime. Tinctures can be used after capsules pills are gone in to reduce stress and aid in coping with life’s transitions. Many mothers use their tincture to ease emotional upheavals, anxiety, and stress during PMS, weaning, returning to work, illness, and even perimenopause. The tincture can also be used during times of transition, illness, separation anxiety, and so on. Mothers report that placenta tinctures restore emotional and physical balance. The tincture can also be used to make a placenta essence as well as a homeopathic remedy, great for babies and children.

Placental Salve

Placenta has been a key ingredient in expensive healing and beauty creams and salves for many years- many eye-creams and anti-aging serums use human or sheep placenta extract for its skin restorative qualities. I can prepare a soothing salve using nourishing oils infused with healing herbs and a small amount of the powder from the new mother’s placenta capsules. Mothers report that the salve soothes, reduces inflammation, relieves pain and itchiness, and promotes healing when applied to cesarean scars, perineal injuries, stretch marks, sore nipples, rashes, eczema, sun and heat burns, and other skin ailments.

Placenta Keepsakes

The placenta is an amazing organ. It sustains the life of the child in the womb, providing nourishment and protection. In some cultures, the placenta is considered the sibling or twin of the newborn child, symbolic of life and spirit, and is respected and honoured in ceremony as well as in medicine. Many families discover that honouring the placenta helps them to process and heal from their pregnancy and birth experiences.

Cord Keepsake

The umbilical cord was the physical link between mother and baby during pregnancy, and many parents want to honour this link with a cord keepsake. I prepare the cord and preserve it in a heart or spiral shape. Some parents save the cord in a keepsake box or album. Some parents choose to bury the cord in ceremony, often under a special plant or tree, with a wish for the child to always return home, and remain grounded throughout life.

Placenta Prints

The placenta’s veins, arteries, and the cord create a beautiful image of a tree; in fact the placenta is considered the Tree of Life by cultures around the world. I capture the beauty of the placenta through prints. The prints are made on heavy acid-free paper, using the natural blood as the printing medium. This produces a delicate but stunning image of the placenta, suitable for framing or treasuring in an album.

Click here to view Placenta Services Packages available from New Roots Birth Services.

If you would like to learn more about placentophagy and its supporting research, please check out my Research page. For answers to common questions, check out the FAQ, and please don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions you may have!

Please note: I am not a licensed medical professional and I am not able to diagnose, treat or prescribe for any health condition. Although the benefits of placenta remedy use by the mother are supported by ongoing research and centuries of safe use, placenta remedies have not been evaluated by Health Canada. It is your responsibility to determine whether using placenta remedies may be of benefit to you.