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.
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