Eat-your-own placenta? U.S. mothers swear by health benefits

Health trends come and go, but one post-birth fad is gaining a foothold in the United States among some new mothers who extol the benefits of eating their own placentas. Convinced it helps to boost energy, produce healthy milk and ward off postpartum depression, the practice is catching on among mothers who shun modern medicine for natural care, or Hollywood celebrities eager to adopt new-age trends. It is called “placentophagy,” and entails eating the iron-rich afterbirth in any form: Liquid, solid or packed into a pill.

Placenta helps to restore your body with vitamins, minerals and hormones. Not rejuvenate you so you can go to parties, just restore you when you feel like a used machine.

Claudia Booker, midwife

The process of turning placenta into pills is perhaps more familiar to cooks than scientists: She cleans it, presses the blood from it and steams it before placing it in a dehydrator overnight. The dried placenta is then cut into strips and put in a coffee grinder to turn into a powder she puts inside small capsules, a technique she learned from a Chinese acupuncturist.There are no scientific studies on the number of new mums partaking in the practice and few on its effects, but that has not prevented the trend from taking hold in some circles, including among A-listers. “Clueless” star Alicia Silverstone has tried it and swears by it.

The pills gave me energy, curbed my mood swings, actually made me really happy, and helped me to handle things in the midst of adding number three to our family after a move and my husband starting a job.

Laura Ransom, mother from Las Vegas who ate ‘placenta pills’

Health