Mmmmmmm, placenta! Sure, it sounds interesting to those who haven’t done it. They wonder what it’s going to taste like and if it’s really beneficial or just another trend among crunchy moms who think they know it all.
There is certainly a lot to say about the placenta. It’s an organ, after all. Human beings are not averse to eating organ meat, but the placenta marks the first human organ that most humans are comfortable chowing down on.
Fortunately, if the idea of chewing the actually organ up turns our stomach, we have the option of using it in a variety of ways. Truth be told, most women are not sautéing this thing in olive oil and serving it for dinner. Instead, we can choose from raw or traditional Chinese preparations.
Still, some women will have their midwife or obstetrician slice off a raw piece of it for them to place under their tongue immediately after the birth. This is known to help prevent moms from hemorrhaging, as well as provide beneficial nutrients to their bodies as they prepare to establish a milk supply.
The raw method involves cutting the placenta up into chunks and freezing it for preservation. Those chunks can then be tossed into our favorite kale and strawberry-banana smoothies for easy digestion that maintains the nutrition without cooking the placenta while also covering up the taste of the organ.
The traditional Chinese method of preparation involves steaming the placenta, then dehydrating it before grinding it into powder that can be placed into capsules.
Just when we thought it was just for that weird girl we graduated with who never cut her hair and always wore maxi skirts before maxi skirts were a thing, we are proven wrong. Even some of our favorite celebs are saving their placenta and reaping the benefits of it.
15 January Jones
When Mad Men star January Jones announced to the world that she would consume her placenta in pill form after the birth of her son, Xander, the press had a field day with her. Many touted her beliefs as akin to witchcraft and mocked the mother’s choice in helping her body bounce back from the journey to motherhood.
In true Jones fashion, she did not stay silent. Instead, Jones stood up for herself and encouraged other mothers to rely on their placentas to help heal them. January revealed that her motive for taking the placenta vitamins was a serious one: she was looking to combat postpartum depression.
January was one more of many women who admit that there are no peer-reviewed, double-blind studies on the nature of placenta consumption. Therefore, there’s no proof it helps. There’s also no proof it doesn’t. She and many other women have stood firm with their choice noting that their personal experiences with eating their placenta are proof enough for them.
14 Padma Lakshmi
Top Chef hostess was once interviewed by TMZ, who asked her what she’s eaten before that she expected to be awful, and it wasn’t actually that bad. Her response shocked everyone when she answered “her own placenta”. It’s a funny thing that we are still surprised by this act.
After all, women have been consuming their placentas and even the broth leftover from steaming them for centuries. Most other mammals eat their placenta after the birth, too. Why not us?
While most moms are accustomed to feeling tired and worn out, and the placenta can be consumed to help ward this off and keep moms feeling energized, Padma noted that this was the least of her concerns. Instead, she was much more worried about encountering postpartum depression.
For that reason, she had her placenta encapsulated and took two pills per day. Judging from the pictures and interviews of her in the postpartum period, we’re going to assume it worked!
13 Natasha Hamilton
This songstress wasn’t holding back from the media when they came knocking and wondering why she too decided that placenta encapsulation was the way to go for her. Interestingly, the pop star’s motives for consuming her placenta were a little bit different than other celebs’. She was trying to combat the side effects of breastfeeding.
Wait, breastfeeding has side effects? You betcha! Not only can it completely wear a momma out, but it can deplete vital nutrients, as well as wreaking havoc on Mom’s mental health. Yes, some women do not deal well with breastfeeding at all. They love the emotional bond, but the hormonal effects of nursing just don’t agree with them.
It’s thought that some of them may be intolerant to prolactin — the hormone that induces lactation.
For Nastasha, it would turn out that breastfeeding was indeed easier this time around. She and boyfriend Ritchie Neville plan on another child in the future and we’re betting she doesn’t skimp on the placenta the fifth time around, either. Hamilton said the loot she forked out for the encapsulation process was the “best money I ever spent.”
12 Kim Zolciak-Biermann
Who can forget the infamous Don’t Be Tardy episode from Season 3 when Kim gives birth to twin babies, Kane and Kaia, and proceeds to consume her placenta. This lady is well known for a few things: her loud mouth, her lavish lifestyle, and her love for hubby Kroy Biermann. So, it should surprise no one that this couple was willing to venture into the land of placenta consumption together.
The couple chose the raw preparation and enjoyed a placenta smoothie made by a trained professional right in the comfort of Kim’s own hospital room. Although they both noted there was a little bit of chunkiness going on, they claimed they really couldn’t taste the organ at all.
That is, Kroy remarked, until the “last little slurp”. Later, the pro football player — who had been off with an injury to his Achilles tendon — noted that what got him to try the smoothie was his hope it would help to heal his tendon. SMH, Dads! P.S. If eating raw placenta wasn’t enough, Kim deserves rockstar status for birthing those twins vaginally, and one of them breech!
11 Magdalena Roze
This weather girl wasn’t messing around when she had her son Archie in 2014. If anyone knows what the forces of Mother Nature are capable of, it’s her. She knew when it came time to deliver her baby that the hormones in her body would start to fluctuate wildly before plummeting.
Knowing that this could result in postpartum depression, she too was concerned about being affected by it and missing out on that intimate time with her baby that mothers get in the those first few months.
To protect herself from harm, Magdalena chose to add a little placenta to her postpartum diet. Beating depression wasn’t her only goal, though. Magdalena was all about doing whatever she could to boost her supply of breastmilk. This mommy maintains her own blog and has revealed in it the vast array of benefits that the placenta carries, such as high levels of iron and a host of nutrients that can help her to “replenish her blood supply” and stabilize her hormones.
10 Gaby Hoffmann
When this Girls star had her daughter Rosemary in 2014 with long-time beau Chris Dapkins, she wasn’t cutting corners on going natural. She delivered her baby girl at home that November, but the natural birth effects didn’t stop there. For the next three weeks, Gaby would down daily smoothies — placenta smoothies, that is.
Her recipe? Toss some guava juice into a blender alongside a banana, some strawberries, a few blueberries, and a nice, healthy chunk of raw placenta. Mmmmmm, are you salivating yet? While Gaby was a big fan of the organ smoothie, some doctors are still cautious of this method, noting that some women do react poorly to consuming their own placenta.
It’s true that the science on this practice is limited. The anecdotal evidence is what leads most women to jump on the placenta train. After hearing from friends that it saved them from the baby blues, boosted their milk supply or gave them a ton of energy during those initial months of motherhood when they were losing sleep left and right, they can’t deny themselves a shot at the same experience.
9 Stacy Keibler
This Dancing with the Stars phenom has more going for her than her long legs and blonde tresses. She’s a mommy to daughter, Ava. When she had her little bundle of pink joy back in 2014, she knew well ahead of time that she would be consuming her placenta after the birth.
Just as the other celeb mommas have had their reasons, Stacy was particularly interested in warding off postpartum depression. It’s not surprising that Keibler would be interested in the health benefits of eating the placenta. After all, she spent her entire pregnancy eating clean — and organic — and exercising every day.
While the placenta is obviously of critical importance during pregnancy, many mommies feel it is beneficial after the baby is born, too. Moms in Asian and African countries still routinely consume their placentas, and while it took a bit for America to catch on, the trend is really picking up here in the states. There were no reports of Keibler suffering from depression after birthing baby Ava.
8 Tia And Tamera Mowry
Nah, we’re not trying to trick you. Only one of these mommas had their placenta prepared for eating after giving birth, but both of them ate it! That’s right. Twin sister Tia ate some of Tamera’s placenta after the birth of her nephew, Aden. How’s that for sisterly love?
Tia remarked that the mixture — some dried, encapsulated placenta mixed with brandy — actually tasted pretty good. These sisters are known for their spunk and out-there personalities, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that this wasn’t the first time they engaged in the digestion of the other’s bodily fluids.
Before you lose your lunch, it was breastmilk the first time around that brought them closer than two perfectly identical twins could already be. When Tia gave birth to her son, Cree, in 2011, twin sis Tamera was there to test out the goods firsthand.
7 Mayim Bialik
What can we say about Blossom? She’s a vegan, but she believes in eating her own organ meat. Wait, what? Yes, this mother of sons, Miles and Frederick, is a big believer in the power of the placenta. She stands so strongly in her beliefs that she had publicly gone to bat for other celeb moms who’ve chowed down on the organ and been ridiculed for it, like Alicia Silverstone and January Jones.
So, why should we be taking parenting and pregnancy advice from Mayim? She’s got two kids, so what, right? Sure. She’s also got a Ph.D. in neuroscience. Think all that hype about the placenta boosting the milk supply is nonsense? Not according to this lady, who is also a certified lactation counselor. If there were a celebrity out there somewhere who you ought to take advice from on health supplements, it’s her. Period.
6 Alicia Silverstone
Truthfully, we would expect nothing less from Alicia Silverstone in this department. The celeb mom has been very vocal on her views of many things and the way she cares for herself and her family. The animal rights activist is a hardcore vegan. She’s even authored authored a cookbook. But wait, the good news doesn’t stop there. She’s penned a guide to fertility, pregnancy, childbirth, and the life after, too.
Alicia is one of those women who is chocked full of so much wisdom that you think she must be your grandmother reincarnate. At the very least, you’re going to read her book, The Kind Mama: A Simple Guide to Supercharged Fertility, a Radiant Pregnancy, a Sweeter Birth, and a Healthier, More Beautiful Beginning, and wish she was your best friend.
Ms. Silverstone also mentions in her book that placenta consumption is a normal tradition among mothers who choose to do it. She encourages moms to do whatever they feel is true and best for them, though. Never the pushy type, Alicia did consume her own placenta after a friend gifted it to her in encapsulated form. She recalls feeling sad when the pills were gone because she loved the experience so much.
5 Holly Madison
Since we humans are mere mortals and are guilty of often grouping people into ideals that we think they should conform to, it might surprise a lot of people that this Playboy playmate was willing to go there and consume her placenta for the benefit of her baby. It might surprise you even more to know one of the reasons for her choice was to boost her milk supply.
Yes, even playmates breastfeed. We know, we know. How will they ever bounce back from the dreaded pancake breast debacle? That’s a story for another article, folks. Madison had heard that placenta encapsulation can help mommies recover from pregnancy and birth more quickly, and that was her primary goal in pursuing the tradition.
Hey, if supermodels and sexy spokespersons like Holly are doing it, why can’t we? We can! Placenta preparation costs roughly $200 on average. Almost everyone who can afford to have a baby can afford to do it this way.
4 Kailyn Lowry
When Teen Mom star Kailyn found herself pregnant again with now-ex-husband Javi Marroquin, she knew she was at risk for postpartum depression. Kailyn has been very open with the public and MTV viewers over the years about her struggles with postpartum depression following the birth of her first son, Isaac.
That experience is what led her to encapsulate her placenta the second time around. Looking back at her first experience with motherhood, Kailyn was isolating herself. She didn’t want to see her friends and family, and breastfeeding was a very big struggle for her.
Hopefully, the birth of her second son, Lincoln, went a little smoother for the TV star. In all likelihood, consuming her placenta may have made breastfeeding a lot easier the second time, too. We can only hope that every woman who consumes her placenta sees positive effects from it, but truthfully, the hormones will be too strong for some women. If you’re one of those ladies that thinks they may react poorly, it is definitely recommended you encapsulate instead of eating the raw placenta.
3 Kourtney Kardashian
If there were any celebrity that would be most likely to eat a product that came out of their uterus, it probably would be Kourtney Kardashian. The celeb mom of three is known for her wild — though often true — theories about the modern American diet: chemicals in food, the oh so controversial gluten, and let’s not forget toxins in household cleaners.
So, it should come as no surprise that she would be on board with this centuries-old ritual. Just before the 2015 new year, Kourt gave birth to son, Reign, and made the choice to consume placenta pills, just as many famous tot moms have done before her. She too was a huge fan of the process and would come to dread the day she ran out of them.
The claims that the placenta helps mommies during the postpartum period aren’t completely unfounded. A study from the University of Nevada touted that 76 percent of moms surveyed who consumed their placenta remarked they had positive post-birth experiences with it.
2 Kim Kardashian-West
The Kardashian empire mogul couldn’t let her sister get away with all the glory on this one. While Kim isn’t known for being quite as crunchy as sister, Kourtney, there are some lessons on motherhood she heeded well from her big sis. Eating her placenta was one of them.
Kim opted for the freeze-dried pill form of the pregnancy organ. She was particularly concerned about experiencing the baby blues or postpartum depression. She seemed worried enough that it made us question what may have been going on behind closed doors after she gave birth to her first child, daughter, North.
After having her second child, a son named Saint, Kim hopped on this bandwagon and says she is absolutely glad she did, because she had great energy from it and had zero signs of depression. It was important to Kim to have time to take care of herself following her second birth experience, and the recovery process was hard on her.
At the time, she noted her placenta was full or hormones that were made by her, for her. We couldn’t agree with this sentiment more.
1 Blac Chyna
Who else is thinking Chyna must’ve gotten her postpartum care advice from one of her baby’s aunties? The Kardashians have been known to influence a person or two from time to time. Anyway, Blac Chyna seems liked she was really going through the motions during her pregnancy with baby Dream, daughter of on-again-off-again partner Rob Kardashian.
If anyone could use some help in the mental health and stability department on this list, it was probably her.
The placenta is widely touted for its beneficial effects on the moods of women who have recently had a baby. The postpartum period is tough. It is fraught with hormonal ups and downs, estrogenic dry spells, and raging progesterone that can keep up awake and sweating all night long.
Poor sleep equals a very poor mood the next day for most women. Likewise, trying to be a food supply for a baby that wakes every two hours to eat is no picnic. We are sure Miss Chyna loved every second of that experience with her little one, but we’re also certain that the placenta probably helped a great deal.
Sources: University of Nevada