Eating placenta after childbirth: is it really healthy?

Some women choose to eat the placenta after childbirth. However, the mother cake is usually disposed of after birth. In this article, we answer whether this can really be healthy.

The tasks of the placenta

The placenta takes on various tasks during pregnancy.

• The mother cake is the link between the mother's and the child's bloodstream.
• During pregnancy, the baby is supplied with oxygen, nutrients and metabolic products via the placenta.
• At the same time, the placenta acts as a filter . Pathogens and harmful substances such as heavy metals are filtered out of the blood and stored in the placenta.
• In principle, the mother cake is a waste product after birth. Nevertheless, some women eat the placenta after childbirth.

Eating placenta - not only extraordinary, but dangerous

There is even a medical name for eating the placenta. The phenomenon is called placentophagia in technical jargon.

• Why do so many trends in placentophagy come from the United States - as usual from the rich and beautiful from Hollywood ?
• Placenta parties are celebrated at which placenta lasagna, spaghetti with placenta bolognese or placenta smoothies are served. Others let their placenta dry and process them into capsules, which they then take regularly. Others just eat the placenta raw.
• As an argument it is usually mentioned that in the animal kingdom mother animals usually eat up the afterbirth. In addition, the consumption of the placenta should help the hormonal balance to level off more quickly, the weekly flow reduced and postnatal depression avoided.
• However, these positive effects could in no way be demonstrated. What is certain, however, is that eating the placenta is not only not healthy, but can be dangerous .
• As described in the first chapter, the mother cake filters everything harmful from the blood and stores it. Eat the placenta, absorb the heavy metals and pathogens filtered out.
• Breastfeed your baby, pass the heavy metals on to your child. The pathogens you ingested can also be dangerous for the baby - his immune system is still weak.
• These dangers don't just lurk if you consume the placenta immediately after birth. By drying the mother cake and processing it into capsules, pathogens are neither killed nor does the heavy metal disappear.

Trends come and go. It is not always immediately apparent what is behind a trend. For this reason, we will explain in our next post what is hyggelig.