Placentophagy among women planning community births in the United States: Frequency, rationale, and associated neonatal outcomes

Abstract

Nearly one-third (30.8%) of women consumed their placenta. Consumers were more likely to have reported pregravid anxiety or depression compared with nonconsumers. Most (85.3%) placentophagic mothers consumed their placentas in encapsulated form, and nearly half (48.4%) consumed capsules containing dehydrated, uncooked placenta. Placentophagy was not associated with any adverse neonatal outcomes. Women with home births were more likely to engage in placentophagy than women with birth center births. The most common reason given (73.1%) for engaging in placentophagy was to prevent postpartum depression. [Corrections added on 16 May 2018, after first online publication: The percentage values in the Results sections were updated.] CONCLUSIONS: The majority of women consumed their placentas in uncooked/encapsulated form and hoping to avoid postpartum depression, although no evidence currently exists to support this strategy. Preparation technique (cooked vs uncooked) did not influence adverse neonatal outcomes. Maternity care providers should discuss the range of options available to prevent/treat postpartum depression, in addition to current evidence with respect to the safety of placentophagy.

Birth, attitudes and placentophagy: a thematic discourse analysis of discussions on UK parenting forums

“…The method of placentophagy most commonly practiced is "encapsulation", a process where the placenta is dehydrated, ground and placed into capsules [4]. This is done with either raw or steamed placenta.…”

“…Whilst prevalence is difficult to estimate, placentophagy is known to be practiced in North America, Oceania and Europe, plus parts of Latin America, the Middle East and Asia and is apparently growing in popularity [5]. In a 2018 study of a medical records dataset for births outside of hospitals containing 23,242 birth events in the United States, 30.8% of mothers consumed their placenta [4]. From 2009 to 2015 Google searches for "placenta encapsulation" increased 100-fold [3].…”

“…Hypothetical benefits (immunological, hormonal and psychological) have been sporadically suggested in professional literature since the British Medical Journal (BMJ) in 1902, with increasing mention after the 1980s. Hypothetical risks have also been proposed (toxicological, endocrinological and immunological) with little evidence supporting them [1], and a large medical records study showed no association with adverse neonatal outcomes [4]. The exception to this is a case of infant infection potentially associated with placental encapsulation reported in 2016 [7].…”

Placentophagy among women planning community births in the United States: Frequency, rationale, and associated neonatal outcomes

“…Farr and colleagues raise four points: (1)"biased" data set used in our analyses, (2) insufficient acknowledgment of the lack of evidence supporting the efficacy of the most commonly cited reason for engaging in placentophagy-preventing postpartum depression, (3) "distortion" of their recent review of human placentophagy, 1 and the article's characterization of the evidence basis of their clinical recommendation against it, and (4) "unprofessional" recommendations for maternity care providers based on our study findings.…”

Community Versus Out‐of‐Hospital Birth: What's in a Name?

“…The term out‐of‐hospital has long been used as a kind of shorthand to refer collectively to births that occur in birth centers or at home. However, this term has also been a persistent cause of concern among health care providers who attend births in these settings, and researchers and midwives are increasingly adopting the term community birth instead to refer to planned home and birth center births . Some who resist the term out‐of‐hospital have argued that it reifies hospital birth as normative and community birth as other, marginal, or alternative.…”