The New Mom Practice of Eating the Placenta Carries Risks With No Benefit

   By SheSpeaksTeam  Jun 15, 2015
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If you can get past the “ick-factor” many new moms are more than willing to ingest the placenta or swallow a placenta pill in order to benefit from the many supposed health benefits like more energy, increased milk production, and a decrease in post partum pain and depression. But now a new study says these claims are false and there is absolutely no benefit for new moms to take part in this trendy practice.

Today reports about the study from Northwestern University that analyzed the findings of 10 published studies on the practice of eating placenta after the birth of a new baby. Though the trend has been growing in recent years, celebrities like January Jones and Kardashian sisters have made it even more popular and acceptable to take part in the practice known as placentophagy.

There are many books and recipes online that outline how to prepare the placenta in your favorite dish or grind it down into capsules for the new mom to swallow. It has become a trend that lots of new moms who want to keep things natural and healthy seem most willing to take part in, but with little evidence that eating placenta will actually benefit them or new baby. Researchers say that in all ten studies they could not find evidence of any purported benefits and warn that eating the placenta may actually carry more risks than we are aware of.

Co-leader of the study Cynthia Coyle explains, “Our sense is that women choosing placentophagy, who may otherwise be very careful about what they are putting into their bodies during pregnancy and nursing, are willing to ingest something without evidence of its benefits and, more importantly, of its potential risks to themselves and their nursing infants.” Coyle also warns about the risks new moms are taking by ingesting the placenta. She says, “There are no regulations as to how the placenta is stored and prepared, and the dosing is inconsistent.”

Would you ever consider ingesting the placenta?

What do you think of the new study suggesting placentophagy doesn’t really have any known benefits and may carry risks?

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