Treehouse Postpartum Services
The following are just some of the many book excerpts, research articles and journal articles that focus on the topic of Placentophagy, otherwise known as consuming the placenta. I welcome you to read as many of these as you would like and if you have any contributions you think I should add to the list, please email me and let me know!
BOOKS THAT RECOMMEND THE USE OF THE PLACENTA POST-BIRTH:
Pathology of the Human Placenta
By Kurt Benirschke and Peter Kaufmann
the complete eBook is available at this link
"The fifth major cause of iron depletion in Gyna sapiens is not so obvious as the previous four but nonetheless significantly increases her risk of developing an iron-deficiency anemia. The transfer and loss of iron associated with gestation and birth exist to a lesser degree in other mammalian mothers but still pose a problem. To counter it, Mother Nature equipped females of the other mammalian species with a vital instinct-an urgent hunger driving them to consume their offspring’s placenta. A plump souffle of meaty iron, amino acids and essential fats, the placenta is the consummate first meal a mother should partake of immediately after the ordeal of delivery. It is the perfect replacement for the very nutrients she lost just minutes earlier, because a freshly expelled placenta contains the iron equivalent of one to two blood transfusions. Gyna sapiens have lost her craving for this delicacy. Our closest relatives, chimpanzees, dine with gusto on their afterbirth immediately after delivering their infants.”
-Sex, Time and Power: How Women's Sexuality Shaped Human Evolution (pages 28-29) By Leonard Shlain
“In the 1970′s, placentophagy became part of radical home birth customs, particularly in the San Francisco area. One 1980 estimate in Science Digest said 5 percent of such West Coast deliveries involved consuming the afterbirth; the East Cost rate among home-birthers was about 1 or 2 percent. It is unclear how many of the placentaphagists were vegetarians, but probably many were. They considered the placenta to be sacred, and, of course, because the organ gave life and nothing was killed to put it on the table, it was considered an honor to consume it.”
-Birth: The Surprising History of How We Are Born (page 218) by Tina Cassidy
“Throughout the world generations have passed down knowledge of how ingesting placenta helps a mother’s postpartum recovery. Women using placenta remedies after birth feel stronger, are happier and can breastfeed more easily… Many conditions during birth, the postpartum period and nursing would not arise if we returned to the old custom of applying placenta remedies.”
-Placenta: The Gift of Life by Cornelia Enning
RESEARCH, ARTICLES, VIDEOS & BLOGS
Placentophagy Survey (2013)
A Survey of Self-Reported Motivations and Experiences Associated with Placenta Consumption By Jodi Selander, Allison Cantor, Sharon M. Young & Daniel Benyshek
Does eating placenta offer postpartum benefits? (2012)
The British Journal of Midwives, By Michelle Beacock
Fire Hypothesis (2012)
By Young, Benyshek and Lienard
In Search of Placentophagy (2010)
By Young and Benyshek
Placentophagies in Humans and nonhuman mammals
By Kristal, DiPirro and Thompson
PLACENTAL ENCAPSULATION AND POSTPARTUM HEALTH (2012)
By Jodie Salender
Stem Cells from Human Placenta can cure Diseases
Video from Oakland Hospital, USA
Stem Cells from Placenta show potential in treating Heart Disease, Multiple Sclerosis and More
By Neal Ungerleider, 2011
Wound Healing Activity of Human Placental Extract in Rats (2001)
Finding human placental extract has potent power of inducing collagenous growth indicating its proficiency in wound healing
Enhancement of opioid-mediated analgesia: A solution to the enigma of placentophagia (1991)
By Mark B. Kristal