I think it is a good idea to look into ANY drugs you're taking, whether it is pills or "cleansing herbs". Read the label and the little booklet with all the warnings.

That's the issue though. Cleansing herbs don't have labels with the negative side effects. And if you complain to the "healer" well the reason those things are not working is because you are a non-believer who is not in tune with mother natures energy or whatever.

I hold a derision for people that blindly follow with herbs and oriental medicine.

But faux cannibals take the whole cake. I'll mean who in their right mind decides to willingly drink their own urine or eat their placenta - gross beyond belief. What about other body parts - hair, fingernail clippings, fecal matter, menstrual blood, blood itself. I logically I do not see it. Why eat something that came from your body, that wanted to get rid of it to begin with.

I would like to think humanity is a whole lot civilized then our distant distant distant cousins the animals. What next taking health advice from a rabbit and eating our poop. Or cleaning ourself like a cat (I can not bend that well). Or guinea pigs and population control via eating are young.

I mean if eating the placenta is good for you - why not go the whole hog and snack on some of the baby too. I bet junior is filled with important nutrients after 9 months of taking it from somebody else.

Simple rule: If your body gets rid of it...its not necessary, and almost certainly not healthy.

But if you know what the cleansing herbs ARE, you can look it up yourself. For example, raspberry leaf is something you should avoid while pregnant, unless you're trying to induce labor. Mint cuts milk supply, but is good for tummy aches.

The point is, don't just eat something because its "herbal". I mean, I can see not reading the label if its Ricola or something that a lot of people take, but otherwise read it.

My midwife gave me herbs but she always told me what they were and I could always look them up.

Every dumb idea will be tried at least once, I suppose. Today's idea? Consume your placenta!

"I hold a derision for people that blindly follow with herbs and oriental medicine."

Chinese medicine circa 345 A.D. is supposedly cool and an alternative to pharma solutions, in the holistic crowd's view, but such people are typically complaining about insubstantial problems like "low energy" (i.e., middle age) or some such. A placebo is exactly what they need.

Once those same people face a real illness, well, then they suddenly rediscover a healthy respect for 21st century medicine's ability to cut out a deadly tumor or replace a failure major organ.

What I found interesting was her acknowledging that if it had been a friend she would have ripped the pills out of her hand. Pregnancy has changed so much since I had kids 19 years ago. I enjoyed my pregnancies but didn't have to worry that everything I did would somehow affect my child's entire life and college career. And I'm talking about what type of music I listened to, what books I read, etc. There's a crazy movement now that I think puts pressure on expectant moms. Still, eating placenta just sounds gross.

And I thought eating boogers was bad.

At least Ms. Redd figured it out before it was too late.

I know several people that are wanting to do placenta encapsulation when they deliver (lots of weirdos out there on parenting forums) and allegedly it's supposed to help minimize postpartum depression by putting the hormones back in your body that otherwise rapidly drop after birth. The whole concept is creepy to me, but it's better than those that advocate having a home birth so they can leave baby attached to the placenta until it naturally falls off on it's own to make birth less traumatic on baby and reduces separation anxiety. I can't imagine lugging around a tiny infant plus a placenta for a week or more.

NicoleK, red raspberry leaf doesn't induce labor. It is taken throughout pregnancy to help tone the uterine muscles to make contractions more effective during labor. I doubt it actually does anything useful, but it's not harmful and won't cause labor.

And I thought eating boogers was bad.

It is. Get your finger out of your nose. :)

Kristen, you're right about all the pressure put on expectant mothers to do absolutely everything "right," even when the "right" things are a shot in the dark. For example, there's no real evidence that an occasional glass of wine will cause FAS. All the research so far indicates that moderate to heavy drinking can cause problems. But if you're pregnant and drink a glass of wine in front of people, they'll look at you like you just ate your own placenta.

People take it as far as suggesting pregnant women never get stressed, which is just silly. Who can stay stress-free for nine months?

There are vegetarians who will eat their placenta after they've given birth. They believe it's the only protein that doesn't come from killing animals. I think I even saw one post a recipe for placenta lasagne.

blechh

btw, Build-A-(Placenta)-Bear

Some things can't be unseen.

For placenta recipes:

http://www.twilightheadquarters.com/placenta.html

I'm wondering if the "cleansing herbs" may well have contained St. John's Wort. It's widely touted as a "mood enhancer", but as with almost any mood-altering chemical, it has the potential to cause the exact symptoms she describes: violent mood swings, irritability, and dangerously intense depression.

P.T. Barnum grossly underestimated the number of suckers born every minute. I strongly suggest that people avoid eating some of the things dogs eat.

How about Placenta-crafting? Potato stamps are sooooo 1970s

http://www.regretsy.com/2011/07/15/placenta-of-attention/

Or maybe you'd prefer some tasteful** jewelry?

http://www.regretsy.com/2012/03/22/left-of-placenta/

**(Tasteful only if you're into placentaphagia)

You should have a strong stomach before you click on this one.....

http://www.regretsy.com/2011/08/23/perfect-seeper/

(I apologize for multi-posting but I couldn't narrow down the Regretsy placenta posts to just one.)

Or, you know, you could *read*. On accident, I stumbled upon the placenta-eating thing on a comedy website. Being an unbeliever ("People don't REALLY do that, do they?"), I had to follow the information. In about twenty minutes of reading or less, I realized that it was hokum, unhealthy, and really, really stupid. Twenty minutes of skepticism could've saved her all the trouble.

MonicaP: "Kristen, you're right about all the pressure put on expectant mothers to do absolutely everything "right," even when the "right" things are a shot in the dark."

Seriously. My little guy will be turning a year old soon, and so pregnancy is fresh in my mind. And I remember being panicked over every little thing. Reading What to Expect, even taken with a grain of salt, is terrifying. The day after I read the chapter on What to Eat I felt shell-shocked. And for those last three months, getting into a car was the most stressful thing I did. Argh.

My favorite? The title of the book "Origins: How the Nine Months Before Birth Shape the Rest of Our Lives" by Annie Murphy Paul. There's apparently a whole new "field" developing on "fetal origins". ((Fun Fact: Ms. Paul is neither a scientist nor psychologist, she's a journalist.))

"Fetal origins"? Here are a couple:

1. The back seat of your car (or the front seat if the seats fold all the way down).

2. The no-tell motel along the interstate.

3. A quaint little hotel in Paris (they can't all be semi-squalid).

OMG! Should not have followed the links! Should not have followed the links! I will never get over those images. This cannot be real. Is she sure those weren't stupid pills she was taking?

Speaking of crazy mothers, did anyone else see that article in the NY Times last week about the women who threw out all their cleaning supplies, make up, and plastic because they are afraid chemicals might reach out from under the sink and kill their babies? I thought they were crazy, but this makes them look pretty rational.

Is it possible that the woman in the story got a different woman's pills?

Careful cornerdemon

Ms. Paul is neither a scientist nor psychologist, she's a journalist.

One of Amy's heros Gary Taubes is not considered a scientist but a journalist. People like to dismiss him because he does not have special 3 letter after his name. Even Amy who likes to use science and logic can not be considered a scientist, she is more akin to a journalist.

Being a journalist should not be a point against her. Neither should it grant her any point either. What matters is here materials hold up to the light of day and science.

Eww. Just eww eww eww. Just reading is gross, I shall NEVER click those links!! And after 4 kids I didn't think I COULD get grossed out by anything birth related.

Apparently, you can not make cheese from human milk-the protein content is too low to curd. Just in case, you know, you ever get the urge. But ice cream and homemade soap are both possible. Some facts I wish I never knew, courtesy of living in hippie-crunchy austin.

I had the odd glass of wine while preggers each time. Ate what I wanted, pretty much. WIth #3 it was a quart of strawberries dipped in melted chocolate, every single night. I have no idea why I gained 50 lbs with her...

John Paulson:

I stand corrected. Thank you for being polite; I sometimes buy into the hype. ^_~

"That's the issue though. Cleansing herbs don't have labels with the negative side effects. "

Yep. Some of those "herbs" are out-and-out drugs. But they slap the magic label on: "nutritional supplement", and they totally bypass the FDA. I wonder if Glaxo Smith Kline could get away with that.

I attend deliveries as a regular part of my job in a local hospital. We don't get many, but on occasion we do get a "tree hugger" or a "granola mamma" as we call them. This particular deliver was interesting because there was no written birth plan. I've seen many of those.

Instead, I walked into the room and saw the birthing ball and doula. Then, the OB delivering the baby held everything steady so the cord could stop pulsing before she clamped and cut it. I'm standing there with my waiting towel. The doctor was so disoriented by all this crap that she almost didn't clamp in 2 places before having dad cut the cord!

So, next thing you know, slimy baby is on his mom and I don't get to do a thing. I can hardly get a set of vital signs. Never mind an APGAR. And OH, forget the bath. No meds. We got a weight at 1 hour of age when mom started asking how much he weighed.

Then the baby was expected to lay on her belly and crawl up to her breast to eat. Right. Didn't happen.

So of course these people took the placenta. I asked then why they wanted it. Their answer... wait for it....

Soup.

I swear to you they were going to make soup out of waste product. I left the room before I hurled all over her bed.

There is a fair amount of scientific evidence that waiting until the cord stops pulsing does help lower the risk of anemia in newborns. One of my NICUers had severe anemia and needed a transfusion. If waiting a minute can help avoid that, all to the good. Birthing balls are better than laying on one's back-fighting gravity is stupid and the rolling motion of the hips can help work the baby down-sort of like rocking back and forth on the toilet if you've got a stubborn poop. THose 2 items don't make it onto my "treehugger" list. Nor does skin to skin contact. It's proven great for baby's heartrate and breathing. Soup though? Gross!!!!!

'but it's better than those that advocate having a home birth so they can leave baby attached to the placenta until it naturally falls off on it's own to make birth less traumatic on baby and reduces separation anxiety.'

Wha-a-a--a-at!? Things in natural birth land have gotten even crazier than when I was pregnant all those years ago. Ew!

I can't stop cackling about 'fetal origins':-D

For the record, my granddaughter did squirm up and nurse herself, some of them will do it.

This is far from new. In the original SNL book from what, 40 years ago now, they include the script of a kiboshed sketch for Placenta Helper.