Placenta Encapsulation: WTF is it!?
You're doing what with your placenta!?
Placenta's are the only organ that a birthing person has in their body, that is specifically made as a "one time use" function. It's grown to nourish and support the growing life in your womb, only to then be expelled when it is no longer needed. What people fail to realize though is how nutrient rich the placenta is! It is chock full of vitamins and minerals that can easily and quickly help to restore the birthing person's drastic hormonal drop after baby is born!
There is a handful of ways to consume it: raw piece in the cheek immediately after baby is born, raw pieces in a smoothie that the birthing person consumes once or twice a day, tinctures, and then (my favorite) encapsulation!!
Encapsulation typically comes with two options: raw encapsulation and steamed encapsulation (TCM inspired) .
🌿 Raw Encapsulation
Raw encapsulation is literally just that, the placenta is encapsulated in its raw form. It is checked over by the placenta encapsulator to make sure all of the pieces are there (or were accounted for if something was missing), to make sure that the placenta still has a healthy color and smell (otherwise it cannot be encapsulated for health safety), and then it is cut up, dehydrated, ground up, and placed into capsules (there's more to it but that's the gist of it 😉).
🌿 Steamed Encapsulation
Steamed encapsulation is similar to raw encapsulation but there's a few more steps in between the placenta check up and the cutting up of it. If you choose the steamed method, the placenta encapsulator will go over what they offer (as everyone may offer something a little different) but most offer additions to the steaming process like essential oils or fresh herbs. Adding those to the process allow for the benefits from those, to be added into the benefits of the placenta. Once it is steamed, it then follows the same steps as the raw method: cutting it up, dehydrating, grinding it up, and placing it in to capsules.
Placenta pills simply look like a vitamin.
Any body I've spoken with, who has consumed their placenta in any way after they gave birth, has typically always been positive. And if it wasn't initially (anxiety can be an issue especially with raw consumption, until the correct dose is figured out), the issue was fixed and they went on to have an awesome experience!
But I get it, placenta consumption is not for everyone. Some people can't get over the way it looks, or how society has conditioned us into: "no it's gross, just get rid of it, you're weird, you can't eat that, it doesn't do anything for you, etc."
Ask any person who has consumed their placenta though, and although all the evidence we have is anecdotal, most people say they haven't struggled with baby blues and/or postpartum depression, their energy levels are good, they don't feel tired because of a lack of iron, their milk supply came in quicker than with their last child. And I do get the skepticism around it, but it's difficult to deny the experiences of so many people who've had positive results from it, where the only thing that was different between baby #1 and baby #2 in the postpartum period for them, was placenta encapsulation/consumption.
