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I am a new mother, and my mom suggests that I eat my baby’s placenta. I find that so gross. How do I eat that? Do I fry it? Or boil it? Steam it? I find that really really strange, she said she ate mine. I could puke right now. Unless there are some health benefits to that, I’m never eating it.
There are no known benefits but in my experience, it inhibits breast milk production. The placenta is very rich in estrogen and estrogen in high levels acts as a lactation inhibitor. I have witnessed a mother who wanted to have the completely natural experience and so she consumed the placenta. She then had to give up her dream of breast feeding as the milk just stopped. There is no evidence to support this practice. I would not recommend it.
I see no health benefits to eating the placenta.
I once read two scientific papers on this topic and both papers stated that the placenta is a good source iron, and provided for increased nutrition after significant blood loss. You could get a substantial amount of protein and iron from a couple of hamburgers. You could say the same for veggie burgers if you threw in an iron pill or two. Non-human mammals do eat the placenta, probably simply out of hunger.
A lot of people want things to be natural.
I think that the current craze for all things “natural” doesn’t allow for the fact that the word natural often has a very muddled meaning. The word ‘natural’ is often nothing other than an advertising slogan.