The placenta is an incredible organ. It nourishes a baby, sustains a pregnancy, and facilitates oxygen, nutrient, and waste transport to and from the baby as needed, for nine months.
After birth, it comes out, and it looks kind of bloody and gross. Some parents don’t want to see it, but others find it kind of interesting. The hospital will incinerate it if it is left behind after a birth.
What else can one do with a placenta, besides leave it behind for incineration?
First of all, it can be a cool science lesson.
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| A., after the birth of her baby sister, examining the placenta* |
Or, it can be taken home. Canadian hospitals, as far as we are aware, and in the experience of those of us on the Board of Mothers of Change, have no problem with families taking home their placentas. American hospitals sometimes require some paperwork, negotiating, release forms, or requesting permission prior to the actual birth. In our case, when Riley was born I was very attached to the placenta, and didn’t want it incinerated, so my midwife simply wrapped it up in a bag, labelled it, and sent it home with my husband to place in the freezer, for me to decide what to do with it later.
A year later we thawed it, took some photographs, and buried it under an oak tree in my parents’ backyard.
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| Riley’s placenta |
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| Matthew is a very hands on child |
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| Goodbye placenta! Thank you for nourishing our baby |
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| And now for nourishing our oak tree |
Please note that yes, my husband thought I was crazy for wanting to keep a placenta in my freezer. It also grossed him out to defrost it and plant it under a tree, but he understood the symbolism behind the idea of planting a placenta and was happy to go along with it. It is nice to point out ‘Riley’s tree’ to him when we go to visit his grandparents.
We also planted Amarys’ placenta a few months after she was born.
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| Still a hands on learner, two years later |
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| The “I think you are gross but love you anyway” look |
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| Amarys’ tree, outside our house |
Asheya’s family also buried placentas, after the home births of their second and third children. They saved both placentas in the freezer until the ground thawed enough to bury them. The following photos are from their daughter Eowyn’s placenta planting.
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| Asheya and Eowyn |
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| Eric holds up the placenta in a bucket |
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| Big brother Elias helps with digging and burial |
Asheya wrote at the time, “It’s strange to think how it [the placenta] has the same DNA as Eowyn; a piece of Eric and a piece of me, and how it nourished her for nine months. But it has no more use now. She’s getting fat on breastmilk!
I think it’s fitting that she is almost six months old; she is transitioning into tasting solid foods and getting into a more mobile stage.
I thought a little about how we think she had a “placenta birth,” where the placenta was wearing out, probably due to its position in the uterus, and that’s why she was born two and a half weeks early. Life is amazing.”
What do you think? Have you saved your placentas? Do you do anything symbolic with them? Share your experiences!
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Well I ingested my placenta! I brought it home, dehydrated it, and then crushed ii and had it put into capsules that I ate like vitamins. Helped with my PPD and healing process greatly. Highly recommend! Side note: the Edmonton hospital I transferred to gave me a hard time about bringing it home by continuously 'losing' it but my vigilant birth team kept tabs on it and we brought it back with us, and rightly so!
Excellent post. I'm an LCCE at a hospital here in Oregon and was just talking about placentas the other night with my students. We don't go into details in the class, but I do take the time to encourage them to "take a tour" of their placenta after the birth if they can handle it (some are just so sensitive) because it's just such an amazing organ. I also encourage them to search online for different options with what to do with the placenta and share that the hospital will let them take it home, but they need to make sure it's in their birth plan and vocalized again right after the birth or likely it will go where the vast majority here go – into the incinerator.
Loved this post. I especially loved Brent's "I think you are gross but love you anyway" face. Ha! That was CLASSIC.
I also encapsulated my placenta. I didn't ever feel PPD or cramping or much need for it, but I did ingest a fair bit of it anyways, just sort of out of the ceremony of it all. And we didn't have a permanent place of our own in which to bury it. Most of my girlfriends here in Portland also encapsulated theirs and took them for PPD, milk issues, etc.
Great post!