The placenta is a beautiful gift. It is a gift, a life force of amazing proportions. As your child grows within your body, the placenta feeds, nourishes, protects, and comforts your baby. It is a provider of strength and life. It gives all it has in pregnancy, and then at birth, it can continue to give. The placenta has one last gift. It has been given to you so it can continue to provide nourishment and life to you and your baby after it is birthed. It has so many wonderful gifts to give from the beginning of pregnancy, to the end, and beyond.
Benefits Include:
• Increase general energy
• Allow a quicker return to health after birth
• Increase production of breast milk
• Decrease likelihood of baby blues and post natal depression
• Decrease likelihood of iron deficiency
• Decrease likelihood of insomnia or sleep disorders
There are a variety of potential benefits to placentophagy. For one, the placenta contains vitamins and minerals that may help fight depression symptoms, such as vitamin B6. For another, the placenta is considered rich in iron and protein, which would be useful to women recovering from childbirth, and a particular benefit to vegetarian women.
Research on placentophagy is still in its infancy, although there is a large body of research beginning to develop on postpartum hormone fluctuations and health. Researchers from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) conducted a study that focused on CRH (Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone). CRH is a stress reducer, and is generally produced by the hypothalamus.
During the last trimester of pregnancy, the placenta secretes so much CRH that the levels in the bloodstream increase threefold. However, it was also discovered that postpartum women have lower than average levels of CRH, triggering depressive symptoms.(1) They concluded that the placenta secreted so much CRH that the hypothalamus stopped producing it. Once the placenta was born, it took some time for the hypothalamus to get the signal that the CRH levels were low, and to begin producing it again. This is just another sign that there is likely a biological cause for the baby blues, directly related to hormone levels.
Interestingly enough, in 1954, researchers conducted a study on 210 women who were expected to have insufficient milk supply. They gave dried placenta to the women, and discovered that 86% of them had a positive increase in their milk production within a matter of days.
http://www.ocdoulas.com/placenta_encapsulation_services.htm
http://placentamom.weebly.com/
My package includes the pickup of the placenta and delivery of the capsules, preparation of your placenta capsules, placenta tincture, the umbilical cord keepsake, and an informational pamphlet explaining how to properly store the placenta capsules as well as the guidelines for the daily ingestion of the capsules. Most placentas will provide 100-200 capsules, depending on the size.
My Fees:
- $150 for clients within a 50 mile radius. $50 travel fee is added for each additional 50 miles. (I am willing to meet up somewhere between to pickup/drop off.)
- $50 for Tincture Services added to the encapsulation. If you only want tincture services (not the encapsulation) I will charge the same as for the encapsulation fee.
Please print off the Placenta Encapsulation Service Agreement form and return to me at the time of pickup, or download and email it back to me with your e-signature and date to ourbirthjourneys@yahoo.com as soon as possible.
