After the placenta is delivered, the cord is cut and an herbal oil, face powder, or ash mixture is rubbed on the cut section. The placenta is buried near the home, or in some communities burned. Nine days after birth, a ceremony is conducted at the placental burial site to announce the name of the baby.
With the steamed encapsulation process, the placenta is gently steamed with various herbs (ginger, lemon, frankincense, myrrh, etc), then fully dehydrated, ground into a fine powder, and put into capsules. "The raw method does not involve steaming first.
“For many Indigenous cultures, the placenta is a living being.” Some other cultures believe in a sort of twinning of child and placenta. In Ancient Egypt, the placenta was considered by many to be a child's secret helper. Some Icelandic and Balinese cultures see the placenta as a child's guardian angel.
But placentophagy -- the practice of eating one's placenta after birth -- is relatively common in China, where it is thought to have anti-ageing properties, and dates back more than 2,000 years.
Do Hospitals Keep Placentas? 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.
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.
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.
Preparing the placenta for consumption by mothers is considered traditional among Vietnamese and Chinese people. The Chinese believe a nursing mother should boil the placenta, make a broth, then drink it to improve her milk.
Exactly how it's working is unclear, but Anstead has plenty of celebrity mom company. Hilary Duff, Chrissy Teigen, Kim Kardashian West, Katherine Heigl, Alicia Silverstone and January Jones have all ingested their placentas, either in pill form, smoothies or by some other method.
In Islam the placenta is buried because it is believed that "from the (earth) did We Create you, and into it Shall We return you” (The Noble Quran, 20:55). Judaism also believes in burying the placenta.
"In Aboriginal culture, we do a ceremony of burying the placenta," Ms Seale said. "It's very significant and connects us to our ancestors and our country."
In Samoa the placenta must be totally burned or buried so it will not be found by evil spirits. Burying or burning it at home also ensures the child will remain close to home as it moves through life.
You may choose to discard it; in which case your hospital or birthing centre will take care of this. If you wish to take your placenta home, you can speak to your doctor or midwife to arrange this. In some cultures, people bury the placenta in a special place.
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.
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.
State regulations allow parents to keep their baby's placenta, said state Environmental Protection Agency spokeswoman Maggie Carson. Some parents may want them for a post-birth ritual, she said. "But it is never acceptable to put placenta into the sewer system," Carson said. "Never."
Q: What are the risks involved with eating the placenta? A: There's evidence to suggest that the placenta is teeming with harmful bacteria, such as group B streptococcus. So if your plan is to eat your placenta, you'll probably ingest that bacteria, too.
Some people who have eaten placenta say that it's kind of chewy and tastes like liver or beef. Others say that it has an iron taste. If that sounds unpleasant, and you want to try placenta, you might want to consider combining it with other foods or cooking it.
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.
In some cultures, burying the placenta connects the baby to land and heritage. Among the Navajo and many Hawaiians, the placenta is placed in the ground to connect the child to his or her homeland and ancestors.
Umbilical cord traditions in Japan
In Japanese culture, many believe that the umbilical cord directly impacts the baby's health. So, when a mother gives birth in Japan, the hospital will usually give her a special box to preserve the cord after it falls from the baby's belly button.
The act of eating the placenta after you give birth, called placentophagy, isn't just something animals do. Human moms do it, too, including tribal women and glamorous celebrities.
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.
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.
The Placental Tissue Donation Program is run in Sydney, NSW and is a part of Australian Tissue Donation Network's Living Donor Program. It gives patients, in Sydney, who are having an elective caesarean surgery, the opportunity to donate their placental tissue, which would otherwise have been discarded.