Posted on 04/02/2012 12:01:54 PM PDT by nickcarraway
January Jones credits eating her own placenta, along with a healthy diet and vitamins, to helping her get back to work on the hit series, “Mad Men,” in a matter of weeks. She told People.com, “Your placenta gets dehydrated and made into vitamins. It’s something I was very hesitant about, but we’re the only mammals who don’t ingest our own placentas.”
“It’s not witch-crafty or anything,” said Jones, who plays Betty on the TV show. “I suggest it to all moms.” In some cultures, it is commonplace to consume the afterbirth. While placenta encapsulation is not FDA-approved in the U.S., the practice has become more popular as midwifery and home births continue to rise in this country.
Research has shown that the afterbirth is indeed a nutrient-packed pouch, and it has been touted as a way to prevent post-partum depression and promote a fast recovery after pregnancy. There is no hard evidence that humans benefit from consuming it, though.
“There is certainly a potential medicinal use,” Dr. David Katz, founder of the Yale Prevention Center, said of placentas last year. “This is a time-honored cultural practice of eating the placenta. It is nutrient-rich and a source of hormones.”
Along with the growing popularity of consuming one’s placenta, new companies have seen the demand and offer services to process a woman’s afterbirth. Many companies will pick up the new mom’s placenta from the hospital, then steam it, dry it and encapsulate it before returning it to the mom in a few days time. Other reports show that some people make a dish that would normally contain meat, like stew or lasagna, then replace the meat with placenta.
Some experts say the up-and-coming industry is a scam, though, particularly when companies tout the afterbirth as a means to prevent post-partum depression. At
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
But did she do it Dothraki style? (Game of Thrones)
Taking this in a different direction than most would.
Who does the placenta belong to; the mother or the baby?
The placenta is the transition point between the body of the mother and the child. One side of this membrane is the supply of nutrients and oxygen the other is the pickup point for these supplies for the child.
So in my mind it is in reality the placenta is the property of both the mother and the child.
But of course the mother is the only one of the two capable of ingesting the placenta at the time of birth.
Now all we need are some good recipes for placenta.
You might be able to use a good haggis recipe.
Half Guilty
Absolutely NOT GUILTY.
The Placenta is completely made up of cells from the Baby, so eating the Placenta is basically “Eating the baby’s nutrient absorption apendage” It is formed from the fetus and attaches to the uterine wall to act as a barrier between mother and child preventing certain things from transferring, but allowing things like oxygen, vitamins, minerals and nutrients to pass through.
It is basically a selective membrane with a very large surface area to allow this and fetal blood pumps through it.
So eating a Placenta is basically eating a part of your own Baby!!! However it is a part of the baby that the baby no longer needs after it is born so besides the ick factor, it is exactly like eating human flesh....
Just because animals do it, doesn’t mean humans should, we can eat enough vitamins and minerals to make up for the so called “nutrient loss” caused by it.
I would say eating the afterbirth could potentially lead to Kuru disease, ick....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuru_(disease)
Or imagine this, what if the baby had a genetic defect that lead to malformed protein / prion disease, you eat the placenta and BAM, Mother has Prion disease along with the baby....
You know? As nasty and funky as this idea seems at first, I don’t think it’s necessarily all that bad an idea. Seeing as how it’s made into pill form it would be pretty simple to consume. I’ve seen enough mother animals eat theirs to know it’s a common act in the animal kingdom. Maybe it helps the mother in the same vague way children are helped by having their mother’s milk instead of formula. Although how would the woman be certain of what she’s swallowing? What if she gets ripped off? Could be dehydrated liver for all she knows.
Anyway, maybe it’s a good idea. Or not. Hell, I don’t know. It’s not ever going to come up for me.
Sunday night’s episode of Mad Men focused on her weight problems.
And - LORD - she was big. Much bigger than the stock photos you posted. She probably added 40 pounds.
But from what I’m reading here - she did just have a baby when accounts for the weight gain.
As the mother of more children than all but one other FReeper (iirc, and there are some dads of more), I say this is totally disgusting. Other species eat their babies, too, if they take a notion.
Want to get back in shape after giving birth? Try wine, spinach, and breastfeeding.
Kuru is caused by eating the brain of an infected human. Can’t get it from a placenta.
Same with prion disease. Nothing genetic about it. You get it by consuming prions which reproduce without using DNA. Weirdest thing I’ve ever heard of. Cooking doesn’t stop it.
BTW, some vegans consider eating the placenta the only time they can ethically consume animal protein without exploiting animals. So they make stew and have a party. Which come to think of it is weirder than the reproduction of prions.
Did she have fries with that?
Well, those other mammals aren't sending their placentas out to be dehydrated and put into little capsules either. They just chow the sucker down raw and whole right on the spot.
Might help her acting. Couldn’t hurt.
Are there any kind of stem cells in the placenta that could be useful? Better than embryonic. Nobody dies.
fava beans and a nice chianti.
Stir Fry, anyone?
Yep, this brings to mind an old joke about a veterinarian who subbed for a country doctor while the latter was on a fishing trip. His only problem while tending to the MD's patients was the reluctance of one new mother to consume the afterbirth.
Never thought I'd see that go from a joke to a sick, twisted actual practice.
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