A placenta is “human tissue”, which the law says must be incinerated at a high temperature or buried at a significant depth and not placed in domestic or council waste bins.
Hospitals treat placentas as medical waste or biohazard material. The newborn placenta is placed in a biohazard bag for storage. Some hospitals keep the placenta for a period of time in case the need arises to send it to pathology for further analysis.
If you would like to take your placenta home you must ask your doctor or midwife and they will talk with you about the risks of taking your placenta home. You must sign a “Release of Placenta” form to show you understand the risks and give it to your doctor or midwife.
Most SA Health units do not have facilities for the storage of the placenta. You will be handed the placenta soon after the birth of your baby and you will be expected to have made suitable arrangements for the placenta to immediately be removed from SA Health premises.
That's because the placenta – an organ that develops on the wall of the uterus and helps sustain the fetus during pregnancy through nutrient-rich blood – is considered to be medical waste, like most organs or tissue removed during medical procedures.
Some hospitals still sell placentas in bulk for scientific research, or to cosmetics firms, where they are processed and later plastered on the faces of rich women. In the UK, babies are gently wiped dry, leaving some protective vermix clinging to the skin.
In her experience working with clients, "some hospitals want to hold the placenta anywhere from 24 to 72 hours, and some want the placenta out of the hospital within a couple of hours." If you deliver at a freestanding birth center you may find not just cooperation with your wish, but enthusiastic support for placenta ...
In most cases, as long as you start your discussion long before baby arrives and make arrangements for safe passage, it can be yours. "It is your placenta, you should be able to do with it as you choose, in a safe way," Otunla says.
Legal Action for Retained Placenta Mismanagement and Errors
If you or a loved one has suffered due to retained placenta mismanagement or error, you should book an appointment with one of the many medical malpractice attorneys at the reputed Rosenberg, Minc, Falkoff, & Wolff Law Firm at 212-344-1000.
Among the Navajo Indians of the Southwest, it's customary to bury a child's placenta within the sacred Four Corners of the tribe's reservation as a binder to ancestral land and people. New Zealand's Maoris have the same tradition of burying the placenta within native soil.
Given all these caveats, we estimate a conservative street value of the placenta today at around $50,000, and that could double or triple in five to ten years.
It is YOUR placenta, not the hospital's. You can keep it if you wish! 2. Put it in writing - make a note of it in your birth plan, discuss it with your care provider and have them put it in your notes.
A placenta provides a perfect environment for germs to grow, which can be a threat to your health and the health of other people around you.
By storing Placental Cells and Amnion alongside your baby's umbilical cord blood and tissue, you can maximise the number and types of cell your child has access to, ensuring they can take advantage of as many therapeutic options as possible.
Typically, delivering the placenta isn't painful. Often, it occurs so quickly after birth that a new parent may not even notice because they're so focused on baby (or babies!). But it's important that the placenta is delivered in its entirety.
Many providers supply special containers for placenta disposal to allow safe containment and transport to a disposal point. Incineration is the usual process. If stored in a freezer, several pharmaceutical companies will collect these for research.
If your placenta is not delivered, it can cause life-threatening bleeding called hemorrhaging. Infection. If the placenta, or pieces of the placenta, stay inside your uterus, you can develop an infection. A retained placenta or membrane has to be removed and you will need to see your doctor right away.
Physicians such as the primary care doctor, OB/GYN, nurses, or other healthcare staff could all be responsible for a retained placenta that causes a mother serious personal injuries.
Pulling also carries a slight risk of tearing the cord and of causing a rare but life-threatening condition — uterine inversion, in which the organ is pulled inside out or even out of the body. The study concluded that the oxytocin injection was the most important thing a midwife could do to stop bleeding.
"Hospitals are very worried about safety, because the placenta really is a biohazard. It's full of blood, it's not very sanitary; it could be a public health nightmare," Titi Otunla, a certified nurse midwife at Texas Children's Pavilion for Women in Houston, said in Parents magazine.
It's not very common. A retained placenta happens in about 3% of vaginal deliveries. It can also sometimes happen after a caesarean section. Certain things increase the risk of having a retained placenta.
Typically, the placenta detaches from the uterine wall after childbirth. With placenta accreta, part or all of the placenta remains firmly attached to the uterus. This condition occurs when the blood vessels and other parts of the placenta grow too deeply into the uterine wall.
The placenta does not, technically, belong to the mother.
Our bodies may create it, but it is part of the developing child, which means it is also made up of 50 percent genetic material from the father.
While some claim that placentophagy can prevent postpartum depression; reduce postpartum bleeding; improve mood, energy and milk supply; and provide important micronutrients, such as iron, there's no evidence that eating the placenta provides health benefits. Placentophagy can be harmful to you and your baby.
What are the complications of a retained placenta? Retained placenta can be serious. In rare cases, it can lead to life-threatening infection or blood loss (postpartum haemorrhage). While there is usually some normal blood loss with birth, blood loss associated with retained placenta can be very severe.