The Joy of Placenta – bon appétit!

Okay, this may be a squeamish topic for some - there are people out there who DO keep their placenta after giving birth to their children. Some bury it, some keep it in the freezer (and have absolutely no idea what to do next), some make art works out of it, some well… cook it and eat it! I fall into the last category and share my experience and recipe below!

Although the placenta is revered in many cultures, very few customarily eat the placenta after the newborn's birth. Those who advocate placentophagy, the eating of one’s placenta, in humans, mostly in modern America and Europe, Mexico, Hawaii, China, and the Pacific Islands believe that eating the placenta prevents postpartum depression and other pregnancy complications. The most general benefit of placentophagy, according to recent research, is that placenta and amniotic fluid contain a molecule (POEF, Placental Opioid-Enhancing Factor) that produces an enhancement of the natural reduction in pain that occurs shortly before and during childbirth.

I'm not one of the brave ones who dare to make spaghetti sauce out of placenta meat and eat it with pasta, however, I was very intrigued by the rumoured nutritional qualities of placenta and after all most mammals eat their own placenta! After experiencing a terribly long and tiring recovery period for my first birth, I decided that I would try and harness the nutritional qualities of my second placenta to aid in my recovery from my second birth.

Step-by-Step

Thanks to the internet and a friend that I made from an online forum who shared with me her experience with preparing placenta, this is what I learnt to do with it:

First, you have to freeze or chill the placenta as soon as possible after delivery. As my second child was born at home, I really wanted to chuck it into the freezer right after it popped out but my doctor indicated that he wanted to examine the placenta at the hospital so my doula put it into a freezer bag with ice packs (which she had prepared in advance) and took it to the hospital for us. She later took it home to freeze it for us and then sent it back to my place after my discharge from the hospital.

Next, you have to clean it really well. If chilled, prepare the placenta as soon as possible to ensure freshness. If frozen, do allow time to thaw completely. My confinement nanny graciously helped me to do this. We weren't really sure if there was a "proper" method of washing the placenta so we just rinsed it several times until the water ran clear (slightly pink instead of dark red). There was a huge blood clot/bloody tissue which my nanny threw away but in retrospect, I wasn't sure if we were supposed to keep that piece of blood piece.

Now, some people find the smell of placenta a little urrgh, so the nice folks at Eu Yan Sang (actually somebody called Mr Ang who is quite knowledgeable about placenta preparation) gave me a small packet of herbs to use with it:

After squeezing half a lemon over the placenta and adding a capful of DOM (if you like), throw the herbs over the placenta together with a few slices of ginger (all these will help to dispel the unpleasant smell).

The next thing to do is to steam it over low heat for 20 minutes on each side (i.e. you steam it for 20 minutes, then turn the placenta over and steam again for another 20 minutes):

Now what you need to do is to wait for it to cool down a bit and then slice it into thin pieces - as thin as you can - sort of like making beef jerky:

Place the placenta strips on wax paper or a metal tray to dry out in the sun (best method), in an air-conditioned room but do watch out for dust and ants or in a food dehydrator/oven on lowest setting.

You have to make sure that the strips are completely dry. One good indicator is that the strips should feel brittle to the touch before pounding them into powder for consumption. Some people choose to eat this powder by adding it to soup while cooking. I preferred to have it sent to Eu Yan Sang where they powdered the dried strips for me and then encapsulated the powder together with some ginseng for my consumption:

Tip: Try encapsulating the placenta powder together with some ginseng (pao sheng) or cordyceps if you don't want the smell of placenta to be too overpowering.....

And there you go, voila, you could swallow your placenta in tablet form and not have the queasy feeling of sinking your teeth into a nice, juicy, thick steak of placenta. Bon apetit!

You can read more interesting posts from Vanessa Teo, mummy of two, on her blog!

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