WARNING TO MY NORMAL READERS – YOU PROBABLY DON’T WANT TO READ THIS. There’s a little text and then pictures… you know, with a real placenta. REALLY. Placentas are bloody. Please don’t read this blog if you shouldn’t and stop being my friend. If you must… pretend it’s hamburger, ok?

…

…

…

For many people, the idea of encapsulating a placenta is a ray of hope to decreasing many post-partum pains, discomforts and emotional swings.

Encapsulating your placenta can have the following benefits:

“Decrease in baby blues and postpartum depression.

Increase and enrich breastmilk.

Increase in energy.

Decrease in lochia, postpartum bleeding.

Decrease iron deficiency.

Decrease insomnia or sleep disorders.

Decreases postpartum “night sweats”.

The placenta’s hormonal make-up is completely unique to the mother. No prescription, vitamin or herbal supplement can do what one placenta pill can. How amazing is that?

The theory is you are replacing the hormones you lost during the birthing process. Each woman’s placenta is unique to her hormonal make-up. Also the first born male placenta is the most enriched.”

(From the tutorial I read at: http://www.cafemom.com/journals/read/1577334/Placenta_Encapsulation_Instructions_w_Pictures)

So… the pictures are gross, because organs are gross. But obviously, we thought it was a good idea, so maybe others will find this helpful as well.

Question: Why did we do it ourselves?

Answer: Because we’re cheap. End of story. We could have spent $150 to have it done, but the supplies cost about $35 and there’s all we need to do both of ours. It was an experiment… and I think it worked out. No gagging. No big mess. Kinda gross, but doable.

Question: What method did you use?

Answer: I used the raw method. You can steam it first, but who wants an extra step… especially one that might smell… at all.

Question: Why aren’t you using universal safety measures?

Answer: Because I was doing it for my very healthy sister and because I didn’t think of it until later. If you do this for somebody besides yourself, you should wear gloves. 🙂 And I did wash and bleach everything afterwards. The dehydrator trays in particular were much easier to wash by just leaving them all day in a water/bleach filled bathtub.

We bought:

00 capsules – used about 150 of them (filled 130 for Melissa and dropped a few and got a few dirty) – They’re not too big but I think you can get them smaller. We bought 500 for $7.98

A Capsule Filler Machine – It cost $24.99 and I don’t know how we would have done it without it. It holds the capsules for you and guides the powder into the capsules.

We also used:

– A colander or strainer of some sort

– A cutting board

– A sharp knife

– A dehydrator

– A food processor (though next time, I’d like to try a coffee grinder)

The process: