I found this oddly fascinating

[Gaia]

For a growing number of new mothers, there’s no better nutritional snack after childbirth than the fruit of their own labor... Many women after giving birth take their placenta home.... In many states, hospitals do not show very warm to the idea, and suddenly refuse. Only the states of Hawaii, New York and Nevada have regulations written on the subject, to allow the practice. One company even specializes in the transformation of the placenta in small pills, consume all these so-called benefits.

Gaia

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/23/placenta-its-whats-for-dinner_n_934141.html

http://placentabenefits.info/images/mainbaby.jpg

[Anno]

Oh sweet jesus.

I just put Placenta Recipes in to Google. 1 Million and 70 thousand hits.

Here be one of them:

WARNING: There are photographs. =[

Placenta Recipes (http://www.twilightheadquarters.com/placenta.html)

I need to go lie down.

[Carmody]

(Carmody is laughing so hard [at and with Anno] he nearly chokes)

How about some raw beef kidney? Probably looks nicer....

The reality is that the placental stem cells are now considered to be incredibly valuable.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKDtUzRIG6I (no placentas)

[Ruby L.]

The act of eating the placenta after birth is called Placentophagy.

Placentophagaggy, it feels, to me.

Very interesting topic, but a bit difficult to read up on it further, at the moment, having had the image of placenta stew freshly burnt into my mind's eye.

(You did warn us, Anno, but that was still not enough preparation.)

I can see it's benefits in the animal world; the placenta would give nourishment to the new mother after labour. But, does a well-nourished woman really need placenta power these days? Especially since it's being boiled and flambéd, surely all the active nutrients would be cooked away?

And now this...:


How about placenta art? Pregnancy websites have some handy hints for mothers-to-be about how they could use their placenta in making prints, using the placenta to make patterns on paper.

"Many parents have found this to be a fun activity as well as giving them a very unique, artistic keepsake of their pregnancy," suggests one of these online parenting guides.


Source: BBC News, The Magazine, 18 April 2006: Why eat a placenta? (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/4918290.stm)

[conk]

What kind of wine goes with it?

Ever watch an animal after giving birth? They often eat the placenta, yep.

[shadowstalker]

I have to yet encounter a well nourished pregnant woman unless they where rich or at least well of and aware.
Lord knows there is nothing redeeming in prenatal pills prescribe to the expecting mother.
IF you have money and actually do what your cravings tell you, and it is truly nourishing to both mother and child then maybe just maybe things work out.
But with all the GM foods out there, I hardly doubt thing do work out.
There must be something in the placenta that only the human body can created that POSSIBLY gets past the crap. You know like Mother's milk for babies, and the immunity that are POSSIBLY created.

[Anno]

The part that confuses me is that I thought the placenta filtered the baby's waste back in to the mother's system. Surely it'd be toxin heavy?

I can imagine there are a lot of new dad's out there feeling very ill when it happens. Maybe it's just a conspiracy of revenge against the fathers?

[Autumn]

Hmm ... I'll consider it if I have more children. I do believe it would be good for the body.

[Tane Mahuta]

In New Zealand, this is what we(Maoris) do with our placenta...

This is also done with the umbilical cord...

or any other part of the body...

http://www.birthtoearth.com/FAQs/Placenta+Traditions.html

The placenta of my 2 Sons were buried & small trees were planted over the top,
of each..

If you move home, you take the tree(s) with you...

We've moved home recently & we couldn't take the trees, cause they are far too
big to uproot...

The trees will continue to grow & grow...enriching the lives of others.

TM

[Davidallany]

Oh sweet jesus.

I just put Placenta Recipes in to Google. 1 Million and 70 thousand hits.

Here be one of them:
Isn't this called Cannibalism?

[Anno]

[...]or any other part of the body...[...]


I really like that tradition. Does this mean if you had an accident and the hospital had to lop a bit of you off, they'd let you take it home to bury?


Isn't this called Cannibalism?

Good point! Maybe it doesn't count if you eat a part of yourself?

[Tane Mahuta]

[QUOTE=Tane Mahuta;298552][...]or any other part of the body...[...]



I really like that tradition. Does this mean if you had an accident and the hospital had to lop a bit of you off, they'd let you take it home to bury?

Yes, NZ hospitals allow for local customs.


Isn't this called Cannibalism?


Good point! Maybe it doesn't count if you eat a part of yourself?

Many years ago I worked in the Highlands of Papua New guinea...

On rare ocasions, tribes that lived higher in the mountains came down,

I was told by locals that these tribes were cannibals(although I never saw any).

Everybody was frieghtened - therefore I accepted it as being true,

and being "Their Tradition"

TM

[Gaia]

What kind of wine goes with it?

Like Hannibal Lecter... With a nice Chianti;)

[Anno]

[...]therefore I accepted it as being true,

and being "Their Tradition"[/I]

TM

It's amazing how much you can learn when you stop demonising people and just accept that they do things differently.

I read an interesting suggestion as to the cause of the canibal tradition in 'Atlantis to the Sphinx' (Wilson). He talked about a study that found remains of early humans that had broken a hole in skulls the size of their hand, presumably to eat brains. He then spoke of people who met canibal tribes and asked about the effects of eating brains and they describe it as similar to how sanguinarians describe the effects of drinking blood.

The suggestion is that it is by eating the brains of others that we became smart and accounts for the tradition of 'taking the power of the enemy by eating them'. Bears, incidentally, only eat the brains of the fish they catch and leave the rest for scavengers and as many people hold the Bear sacred, we could have learnt it from them. Our ancestors would have been among the scavengers harvesting the rest of the fish.

By applying this kind of thinking to the Placenta Munchers I came up with an odd thought. The placenta lives and grows with the child as an interface with the mother so energetically it will be a lot like the child. Many animals eat their young, we do not. Perhaps eating the placenta is a substitute for eating a child you may not really need or are unable to support as we don't do such things anymore?

[Maia Gabrial]

Even though it comes from the woman's body, it still gaggy to think about. I'm thinking that The Placenta Recipes could have been made to look alittle more appetizing than slapping the wet, nasty gooey stuff on real food.
There might be some truth to this eating the placenta, but I'll pass. It reminds me of this show I saw years ago about burgers made out of cacaroaches. They tried to make those sound delicious, too.

[Carmody]

The placenta is loaded with, IIRC, incredibly valuable stem cells.

[Anno]

The placenta is loaded with, IIRC, incredibly valuable stem cells.

Maybe that's why hospitals are so intent on keeping them? I've always wondered why Chuck Palahniuk put making soap out of fat in to Fight Club. It seems like just a funny idea but as a symbol it's one of the most powerful in the book (or equally good Film) and is referenced constantly by the Kiss scar that also seems to be meaningless as it doesn't really get talked about, just constantly shown.
Perhaps he was hinting at something about the medical industry? Invisible Monsters has the pharmecutical industry as it's theme and it's often called 'Fight Club for Girls and Gays'.

He's saying something but he's so subtle I'm not sure what it is, but if Placentas are full of stem cells and in nature we'd eat them, then hospitals tell us not to so they can keep them it could suggest harvesting.

Hospitals and Hospitalers both use the red cross.