You ate what?!?

It seems to be becoming somewhat of a fad nowadays, but is definitely far from mainstream.  I'm talking about placenta encapsulation.  I first heard about placenta encapsulation when I was suffering with severe postpartum depression (PPD) after having Genevieve.  Wait, what?  People consume their placenta.  Yep, they sure do and there are a lot of benefits of doing so.  Here is a great article that goes over the benefits: http://placentabenefits.info/articles.asp.

To summarize, the benefits are:
-Decreases PPD/PPA (postpartum depression/postpartum anxiety)
-Increased milk supply
-Increased energy
-Decreased postpartum bleeding
-Can prevent postpartum hemorrhaging
-Can be used during menopause to help balance hormones

The two benefits I was most interested in were helping with PPD/PPA and increasing milk supply.  I never had an issue with milk supply with G except when my period returned.  However, it took almost a week for my milk to come in and I was hoping to avoid that the second time around.

My original plan was to have a friend encapsulate my placenta.  However, we ended up moving before B was born and we had extra birth related expenses because of that.  I decided that Chris and I would encapsulate my placenta.  (I encapsulate placentas, so this is no biggie to me.)  I also have 2 tinctures that are processing.

I ended up not completely finishing the encapsulating process until about 3 weeks postpartum.  I had ordered the empty capsules from Amazon, but they took almost a month to be delivered.

I started noticing that I was having some signs of PPD/PPA.  I was crying way more than I think is normal.  I was also very, very irritable and angry.  I finally starting taking my pills and noticed a big difference within a couple of hours.  It has also helped give me energy.  I am still tired and somewhat cranky due to lack of sleep and adjusting to life with a 2 year old and a newborn, but it is nothing like the extreme irritability I was experiencing.

As far as milk supply goes, my milk came in within 12 hours after B's birth, so I didn't need the pills for that.  I have also had zero issue with supply thus far, so it hasn't been needed for that.

I am definitely glad that I chose to encapsulate my placenta.  Next time though (if there is a next time), I will probably pay someone else to do it.  Finding time to encapsulate it was quite difficult in the first couple of days after giving birth.