I am the mother of two beautiful and highly spirited children, born in 2004 and 2009. As well as being a wife and mother I work part time as a chiropractic assistant, in a wellness clinic that specializes in chiropractic obstetrics and pediatrics. My interests in life are natural health, reiki, cooking, hiking, and spending time with my family.
I wish I could write here the great experience that I had by consuming my own placenta; however I was not lucky enough to have done so, finding out about encapsulation a few months too late.
Before my son was born, I had discussed with my husband the idea of keeping the placenta to use it to plant a fruit tree. My husband was a little disgusted; this was a totally new and strange concept to him. I had my son with a midwife in the hospital, after the delivery the nurse looked at me and said, "with you having a natural birth and all the non interventions with the infant you requested, you have mentioned nothing about keeping the placenta. Would you like to take it home with you and perhaps use it to plant a tree?". My husband was out of the room at the time making the celebratory phone calls to the grandparents, so I was ecstatic and told her yes. We put the placenta in the freezer and there it sat for five years, and we moved it with us twice, always having the best intention to plant the tree.
Pregnant with my daughter, I knew that I wanted something different than the hospital birth that I had, even though I was able to do it naturally. We decided a home birth was meant for us. I knew that I wanted to keep my placenta. I had read about the wonderful benefits of consuming the placenta, but was turned off by the idea of making it into a soup or lasagna. After the birth it was immediately frozen, along side of her brother's placenta.
In Japanese culture (my husband is from Japan) it is customary to have a celebration on the 100th day after the baby is born. We decided to plant bare root raspberry bushes in the backyard to commemorate this occasion. We planted four fruit bushes; two were planted with placentas (my daughter's and finally my son's after five years). We planted the bushes as a family; my son enjoyed planting his placenta, and was in awe that the placenta was his "food store" in utero. Within two months the two that were planted on top of placentas had grown a foot and a half over the two that had not been planted with placentas. Not only did they grow taller and have more leaves, but within three months of planting them we enjoyed a handful of berries off of each plant.
Soon after this, I came across an article that told the story of a Placenta Encapsulation Specialist. I was excited and disappointed at the same time; I wished that I would have found out about this six months sooner. Late in the summer I was showing my out of town guests the difference in the four plants and explaining what placenta encapsulation was, I came back in the house and went into the bathroom and cried. I wish I would have had that nutrition and the amazing energy that the plants had received from my placenta. Seeing the results with our raspberry bushes, my husband had a new prospective on placentophagy.
A few days after the birth of my daughter, my son came into my room and found me crying, he immediately yelled to my husband, "she's crying again Dad". The feelings I felt were real, and had experienced similar feelings and crying spells after the birth of my son. As a result of my training with PBi, I now know that the drop in hormones, iron levels, and the lack of sleep was really what made me weep. I truly believe my experience would have been different if I would have received the benefits of placentophagy. I look forward to helping new moms get back their energy and nutrients, making the transition easier, allowing them to enjoy the special time with their precious baby.
