I was just reading some posts from other fellow bloggers and one had recently posted about placentophagy being a possible cure for postpartum depression. I’ve never ever ever heard of that term or the claim. Placentophagy is what it’s called when one eats their own placenta – that’s just gross! I haven’t looked up any news articles on it but apparently a woman recently sued a hospital to get her placenta so she could eat it. The idea behind this madness is that the placenta is filled with hormones that helped sustain the pregnancy and if the woman ingests it she can avoid postpartum depression because it will replace the hormones she lost after the delivery.
In her blog post Kristin posed a question:
One question I haven’t yet seen addressed is: once a placenta is dried out, would the hormones even still be chemically active/viable?
I was going to leave a comment on her blog with my thoughts, but this topic was so bizarre to me that I decided to put my answer on my blog and just leave some links to her site and post. My comment:
That is so gross! As far as the placenta having hormones and them still being active – I would guess yes. I mean USDA requires that cows not get any hormones for a period of time before they’re slaughtered so that it doesn’t affect the people that eat it. I just wonder if the placenta has the right hormones in it – as in the ones that will help a woman against PPD. If they ever do a study on cannibalizing placentas I’ll make sure to keep tabs on it, but I’m not signing up for it!