Disposing of a Placenta

Oh for goodness sake! It's medical waste. Let's focus on the baby people. We don't have to "respect" the placenta. Please.
Your midwife should be trained better than she is. I'd be quite leery of that fact.

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If you bury it at least 2-3 feet down and plant a flowering bush over it - things should be fine AND you'll have a beautiful reminder of that day. This is what we plan on doing... in July.

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I think this is revolting personally, but you can google "Placenta recipes." People cook with it and eat it in a meal or two. You can also send it out (have someone pick it up, whatever) to have it dried and put in capsules to take as a nutritional supplement which makes some sense. But none of that is necessary for humans to do. We were never intended to consume placentas.

I would give it over to your midwife to dispose of since it's medical waste. There's not need to "respect" it since it's simply going to be a used up piece of organ tissue that's done its job. There's something to be said for moving on with life and getting past the pregnancy and birthing experience.

EDITED: For those who say "mammals are intended to eat their placentas" you really need to think about this. The only real practical reason animals eat the placenta is not for nutritional value but so that predators don't come around looking to eat the new baby animal and weakened mother. It's a hazard to leave a placenta lying around. Nutrition is only a side effect of something that is literally a life and death situation for creatures living in the wild.

Humans may be mammals, but we're still human and not all cultures (even considering early ones) eat or ate placentas. It's misleading to tell people that we're supposed to ingest these used up organs because animals in the wild do for self-preservation against predators. Most cultures on the planet have not ingested human organs, especially placenta. Burial, yes, until modern day incinerators. Which I believe is far more respectful and sanitary.

EDITED AGAIN: After your "so what happened" I would say to give it over to your midwife or whomever the medical professional overseeing your delivery will be to dispose of the placenta. Call your local hospital to see if they'll take it to incinerate it for you. Call your local crematorium. There have to be options other than "eat it" "toss it in a trash can" and "bury it" when you have a home birth.

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yuck. I think I would get a second opinion from another midwife.

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I agree with Bug...I can't imagine a midwife who is NOT prepared to deal with the placenta after attending a birth. I mean this is not an unusual situation and there will ALWAYS be a placenta involved!! That being said...I would be tempted to do what the others have suggested....prepared a place for it before you go into labor....2 foot deep sounds like plenty to me...and then your husband can take that as part of his labor partner duties...burying the placenta. I am sorry...my daughter is planning on a home birth and I still can't stop myself from chuckling over this. I will HAVE to ask her what her midwife plans on doing with her placenta...lol.
Good luck with everything...hope the home birth experience is wonderful and goes smoothly for you

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I just don't understand why a Midwife is not prepared to deal with a placenta. I have never heard of that, it's part of their job!!! Are you using a birthing pool? The pools midwives have suck up the placenta, and they dump it down the drain. My friend had a home water birth, and they simply flushed it, once it was sucked up. How long have you been seeing your midwife?? It doesn't sound right, that she doesn't have the capability to dispose of it.

With all that said, it will not harm your children (in any way), if you bury it. You can plant on top of it, also.

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I am a midwife and have had two homebirths myself. With the first one the birth was in February so we stored it in the freezer and then on Mother's Day we planted a beautiful tree and buried the placenta underneath the tree. The tree is now six years old, big and beautiful. The placenta has a ton of vitamins in it and is a wonderful fertilizer. My second homebirth was a year ago and the placenta is still in my freezer.
Have you thought about having the placenta encapsulated? You can find a certified encapsulator in your area through this website: http://placentabenefits.info/. The placenta is dried and turned into capsules that you take. It will give you wonderful energy, help with fatigue, and ward off any baby blues/postpartum depression if you are prone to that.

Also, people mentioned that hospitals just burn them up. That is not true. Placentas are sold for lots of money to research companies and cosmetic companies.

Edit: "For those who say "mammals are intended to eat their placentas" you really need to think about this. The only real practical reason animals eat the placenta is not for nutritional value but so that predators don't come around looking to eat the new baby animal and weakened mother. It's a hazard to leave a placenta lying around. Nutrition is only a side effect of something that is literally a life and death situation for creatures living in the wild."

The above statement by another mother is a MYTH. If she actually educated herself on placenta ingestion she would have learned that this a myth. Animals that have no natural predators in the wild eat their placenta such as tigers. Also, animals that reside in trees eat their placenta as well as animals whose babies get up and walk away soon after birth eat their placenta before even following the baby. It is not a danger for many animals to leave the placenta yet they still eat it. Women that practice traditional Chinese medicine eat the placenta as well as women from India. There have been studies done on ingesting the placenta through capsules. Those studies have proven that it does have beneficial effects for the mother such as helping to cure anemia, fatigue and it helps increase the mother's milk supply which is extremely beneficial to women that have had production issues in the past. 87% of women had a drastic increase in milk production.

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I'm with Sue on this one. Why not just put it in the trash? It's not going to do a whole lot of good hanging out in your freezer for years, like some end up.

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My daughter's midwife made pills out of the placenta. My daughter said that she felt better having taken them than she remembered after giving birth to her first 2 and not using the placenta. The placenta is full of minerals and vitamins.

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Capsulate it. I think I might do that after my next baby. .. still have to look into it more. But it it the perfect anti-dipreasant for the baby blues or post-partum. I also hear that it helps with breast feeding.
Sounds gross, but so does most things us mom's do.

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I would call your local hospital and explain the situation to them and ask if they can take care of it for you.

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Have your midwife take it. It's medical waste, technically, and our midwives offered to take ours. Alas, it sits in the freezer, horrifying any guests who snoop and waiting for a tree....

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don't put it in the trash. have some respect for what fed and nourished your baby for 9 months. why don't you want to bury it? if it's a space issue, freeze it until you have somewhere to do it. the take it with you when you go to the country somewhere, or ask a friend with a yard if you could bury it under one of his/her trees...it is wonderful for the tree, decomposes into the world's best plant food. just consider treating it ceremoniously and i think you will be happy afterwards.

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Ditto Pamela, just bury the placenta deep, at least 2-3 feet so that your children won't even notice and local wild animals won't dig it up.

I really like the plant idea. I would also recommend you pick a spot before, dig and prep the spot before birth so the placenta can be plopped into the ground as soon as possible.

If you truly do not have the ability to place in your yard...then a lovely drive out out to the country, with a spade in the trunk, near a reserve or national park, drive down a back road and find a pretty place. Put a rock over it so animals don't dig it up as it will be time consuming to dig 2-3 feet out in the wild.

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I love Pamela,Raven and sons idea!!!!!!

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If you don't want to bury it, why couldn't just you tie it up in a plastic bag and throw it in the garbage? You certainly wouldn't want to try to flush it, as someone suggested, since they normally weigh about a pound.

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I had two home births. What's the big decision, it shouldn't take a minute of time really. People bury it because it's really the easiet and most common sense thing to do, what else would you do with it really? Eating, for me at least, was TOTALLY out of the question, but to each her own. Don't you think a Momma from 100 years ago would be laughing out loud at all this discussion over such a trivial decision? Remember by the time you have placenta to figure out what to do with you'll also have a newborn baby!

It almost sounds like she WANTS you to bury it in your backyard, so she's seeming a lot more helpless than she really is about it. I've NEVER heard of a midwife who can't dispose of a placenta. I've had two birth center babies too. My sister has had a homebirth, other sister attempted a homebirth. Tons of friends who have birth center/homebirths (have lived near a couple birth centers that also did homebirths)...never once have I heard of that! I'd double check with her to see if she really has no way to dispose of it.

Just remember if you bury it, it'll decompose and won't always be there or anything. And if you do it deep enough, like others have stated, it shouldn't be a problem with your kids. BUT, it's just silly you're kind of being forced to do that if your midwife won't do it herself. That's part of what you're paying her for.

A hospital will incinerate it as human bio-hazard material (according to my hubby)...assuming they'll take it.

I have had one homebirth and planning another for august. I still have the last placenta in the deep freeze with plans to bury...I am exploring the idea of encapsulation with the next. My midwife will also take and dispose of the placenta. If you don't have a midwife (call around to doulas or midwives and see if one will help you out) to send it off with, double bag it and take it to the dump...it's illegal to put it in the trash in my state, but would be an alternative.

i would call the hospital and see what they would do with it if you were there at the hospital. if they just throw it away, etc. if you put it in a bag and maybe bury it on the side yard where the kids don't play? i know it's kinda gross, but what else can you do without throwing it out/burying it or having the midwife take it with her when she leaves?