Placenta Encapsulation

Placentophagy, the process of eating the placenta after childbirth, is not routinely practiced in humans except in China where the placenta may be dried for medicinal herbs.  Most commonly, in the Western world, the placenta is incinerated after childbirth by the health care facility where the mother gave birth.  More commonly as in Japan, Turkey, the Ukraine, & New Zealand, the placenta is buried and a given a ceremony or funeral.  Placentophagy is actually quite common in mammals.  Aside from the pinnipedia, the cetacea, and the camel, the human is the only other mammal that does not routinely eat it's placenta after childbirth.  Placenta encapsulation is becoming more popular in the west as women are using it to starve off the 'baby blues' and 'bounce back' after childbirth.




January Jones, the rockin' blonde from Mad Men, has returned to work 7 weeks after giving birth to 'Xander' at 34.  She also attributes her speedy recovery to her placenta.  The star admits to doing placental encapsulation.