Eating my placenta

I had read about the amazing results from eating one's placenta and my curiosity was struck. Since I had struggled with depression so much throughout the pregnancy (see previous pregnancy post here), there was a real fear and concern of me getting postpartum depression. My midwife had expressed her concerns on this a couple times, I really wanted to avoid it and by natural means if possible. I asked her about placenta encapsulation, she recommended it and even gave me the name of a local doula that offers the service.

I contacted Divine Doula and her service included the encapsulation service, art prints made from laying the placenta on paper, and umbilical cord keepsake and pick-up/delivery service. I also decided to add on the "tincture" service. Raw pieces of placenta are placed into a vial with vodka to ferment for 6 weeks. It has an indefinite shelf life and can be used for PMS, depression or menopause. She also says it can be diluted and used for the baby when he is teething or other stressful situations.

We called her a couple hours after birth and she came to our house that evening to pick up the placenta. She delivered everything the next evening. She had wrapped up a very nice package with a hand-written card wishing me and my new baby well, and instructions on the pills and tincture.

My biggest fear with the pills was that they would smell funny, or I would burp it up and taste the placenta...eek, what in the world would that taste like?!? Much to my relief there was no smell whatsoever and I never burped or tasted anything.

I started taking the pills that night. That first dose I took 3 pills and I actually felt a little buzz from it!! It felt like I had drank a BIG glass of wine. This was the only time that I felt anything like that with them. For the first 2 weeks I took 3 pills/day, then 2 pills/day for two weeks, and then 1 pill/day for the remainder of the batch. In total I had 140 pills and it lasted about 7 weeks.

The results were pretty amazing. The first thing I noticed was my energy level and mood. As happens with a newborn, sleep is very challenging but I didn't feel exhausted or delirious like I did with my first son or throughout the later part of the pregnancy. And more importantly I was happy! I felt like myself again very quickly and better than I had felt in a very long time. My husband and mom pointed out my energy and mood on several occasions in the first week.

I had pretty bad cramping from my uterus shrinking down for the first week. However, my tummy got flat much faster than my first and I was able to get into my jeans at just 7 days after birth. In both my pregnancies I gained 20 pounds, lost 15 overnight, and by day 10 postpartum I was back to my pre-pregnancy weight. With my first, I stayed at that weight, however with this one the weight kept falling off and continues to do so. I have lost a total of 28 pounds and I haven't done anything different this time except take the pills.

Fenix is now 3 months old and I have no symptoms of PPD and never had any "baby blues" at all. I didn't have PPD with my first but I definitely had baby blues and was exhausted and stressed all the time. All in all, I feel great and have ever since Fenix was born!

I am a total believer in the benefits of eating the placenta and would highly recommend to anyone considering it.

The Birth of Fenix

Fenix Nox Carvalho was born at home on January 12, 2012 @ 4:10pm after 8 1/2 hours of laboring. He weighed 9lb, 2oz & 20in long. My birth was attended by Nedra of Milestone Midwifery. Thank you Nedra for supporting me in the safe birth of my baby and thank you for knocking me to my senses a couple times.

My birth photography was done by the lovely and talented, Ciara D'Anella. Thank you for telling such a beautiful, powerful story through your images.

And last, but not least, a million thank you's to Zon, my husband. I couldn't have gotten through the pregnancy or birth without your support. I know it was the most challenging time of our marriage and I am so grateful you walked the journey with me, holding my hand the whole time.

 

My favorite shot.

Pure bliss.

I did it!

Stunning sunset right after he was born.

Pregnancy...oh pregnancy. You suck.

I hated being pregnant. My first pregnancy was tolerable, at best. The second was miserable the entire time. All I wanted was to fall asleep and wake up to an alarm that shouted, "Congratulations, you made it 40 weeks! Your baby boy is ready to come out!" Of course, we all know it doesn't happen that way.

My husband and I were in the midst of a huge growth spurt of our company. I had been traveling constantly and working to the point of poor health. I was in Dallas for 2 weeks fixing one of our biggest accounts that had taken a turn for the worst. A couple days into it I began to be nauseous and it didn't subside for the rest of the trip. My husband, Zon and I were speaking and he said maybe I was pregnant. We decided it would be best to wait to take a test because it would be horrible to be alone in a hotel room and find out I'm pregnant.

The night I came home I dreamed I took a test and it was positive. I woke up, jumped from bed, and took a test. The result window popped up a positive result before the control window showed it's blue lines. We were shocked...and excited. The timing was horrible with all the business drama happening however we wanted our kids to be about 2 years apart and they would be.

I so badly wanted this pregnancy to be different than my first. I had a healthy pregnancy and healthy baby, thankfully. Physically I was very uncomfortable almost the whole time. Mentally I was so enthralled with being pregnant and bringing life into the world, that I couldn't focus on anything else and our business suffered from it. I thought I would be less distracted this time and my physical aliments would be better as well.

Sadly that was not the case. The nausea was fierce until 14 weeks. Then the headaches began. For over 3 months I had migraine headaches every day. I did every imaginable natural thing to fight them - acupuncture, massage, Tylenol (such a cruel joke), caffeine, diet changes, pressure points, aromatherapy...absolutely nothing helped. I could barely get out of bed, when I did I made it to the couch and planted myself there all day. The computer screen was intolerable so work was out of the question. My very noisy, rambunctious son was difficult to bear at times and that was heartbreaking. I literally lost the ability to enjoy anything and depression set in.

My midwife expressed concerns that if I didn't get the depression under control I should go on an anti-depressant, which was terrifying to me. All I could think about was the injury lawyer commercials looking for babies that were born with defects because the mom took anti-depressants. Thankfully the three months passed, my hormones leveled and the migraines subsided at which time the depression got a little better. I could at least function again.  Thankfully I didn't go on the anti-depressants.

I had three weeks when I felt ok...

At the time we lived in a late-1800's church that was converted into a loft. We had some really bad rains for several weeks and the stained glass windows leaked large amounts of water into the house. Come to find out this had happened many times before we moved in and there was mold in the walls. We even found a couple areas on ceiling beams with an inch think of black mold growing on top. Knowing how dangerous it is with a toddler and me pregnant - we decided a move was imperative and I was 6 1/2 months pregnant. Moving is hard enough as it is, let alone with a giant belly.

After the move I feel like my body took a turn for the worst. I had bad round ligament pain and popped two hernias in my belly.  The baby would move around and get his little parts wedged in them and they would pop out. Hernias are painful! Then I started having constant pain in my pelvic and groin area. It was a constant throbbing, pressure pain and I couldn't walk normal. My midwife checked me out and I had an internal vulvar varicosity, which is basically an engorged vein inside of my labia. It was so excruciating at times I would just sit and cry. I tried support belts, adjustments, all kinds of things to make the pain stop, nothing provided relief. I wasn't able to lift anything as extra weight would make it hurt even more. Not being able to hold my sweet boy was so hard and he didn't understand why I couldn't hold him.

It would get so bad at times that I wasn't able to lift my leg as the muscles are all tied together down there. I couldn't move my legs without aggravating it. Once I had to crab crawl up the stairs backwards because I couldn't lift my legs. My life was so limited during this time, normal daily tasks became unbearable. I couldn't stand, sit, lie down, or walk for too long or it began to hurt badly. Grocery shopping was out of the question for longer than 10 minutes. Thankfully I have an incredible husband that took amazing care of me during this time and helped me so so much.

The last month was the most challenging. In addition to the varicosity and round ligament pain I had low back pain and a pinched sciatic nerve, which I'm sure was from the goofy limp I acquired from the varicosity pain. Rolling over in bed (which is challenging enough during pregnancy) became really painful when I had Pubic Symphysis separation and I could feel my pubic bones popping where they had separated too much.

I cried at almost every visit with my midwife when she would ask how I was doing. If I were not doing a home birth I would have made my OB induce me to stop the suffering. I was miserable, no way to be nice about it - just absolutely, completely miserable and wanting to not be pregnant anymore. Every morning I woke up, sighed, and thought, "I'm still fucking pregnant."