Should You Eat the Placenta?

Each one of us came into this world attached to a placenta – making it arguably one of the most important, yet least understood of the human organs. This temporary organ grows in the uterus during pregnancy – influencing not just the health of a woman and her fetus during pregnancy, but also the lifelong health of both. In the past few years, I have heard of a number of postpartum women who have opted to consume their placentas in either encapsulated, cooked, or raw form. This is known as placentophagy. Some reported perceiving positive benefits and indicated they would engage in this practice again after subsequent birth. Believe it or not, most placental mammals participate in placentophagy, including herbivores – with the majority of humans being an exception. Although I have heard claims that this practice may “prevent postpartum depression, provide pain relief, enhance recovery and increase milk production through the retained hormones and nutrients of the placenta,” results published in the National Library of Medicine are inconclusive and require further investigation. In fact, the @cdcgov recently issued a warning due to a case in which a newborn infant developed recurrent neonatal group B Streptococcus sepsis after the mother ingested contaminated placenta capsules containing Streptococcus agalactiae. They recommended that the intake of placenta capsules should be avoided owing to inadequate eradication of infectious pathogens during the encapsulation process.