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Frequently Asked Questions
- Encapsulation Timeline
- Lotus Birth
- Raw vs. TCM Encapsulation
- Placenta Smoothie
- Does the placenta store toxins it filters?
1. What is the optimal timeline for encapsulation?
Ideal Timeline:
| Birth - 3 hours |
3 hours - 48 hours |
| You can prepare the placenta fresh. It will hold the most benefits at this point. |
You can prepare the placenta fresh, as long as it's been refrigerated. |
Alternate Timeline:
If placenta can not be prepared within first 48 hours
| 48 hours - 2 weeks |
2 weeks - 4 weeks |
After a month |
| Double-bag placenta and freeze within first 24 hours of the birth. Thaw in the refrigerator (takes about 24 hours) prior to encapsulation. |
Placenta may still be encapsulated, however the longer it is in the freezer the less effective it may be to the mother. |
The placenta may be at risk for freezer burn and the longer its stored in the freezer, the less benefit it has to the mother. |
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2. What is Lotus Birth? Can I encapsulate and have a gentle separation too? I am planning a lotus birth and putting the attached placenta in a soft-sided cooler on bagged ice. The cooler has a zipper that would be closed around the cord... might it be acceptable?
A lotus birth is when the placenta is left attached to the baby until it detaches on its own, generally after several days. In lotus birth, it is common to salt or otherwise help the placenta dry out more quickly. While traditional lotus birth is a beautiful ceremony honoring the connection between placenta and baby, it renders the placenta unsuitable for consumption.
If lotus birth is important to you, a modified version could be performed while still encapsulating the placenta.
a) The placenta could stay connected to the baby for up to three or four hours. This would give the baby a gentle transition to the world, and the placenta would still be fit for consumption after this amount of time. Do not exceed four hours before separating the placenta and refrigerating it.
b) Another option at four hours postpartum is to sever the portion of placenta that you desire to encapsulate, and place it into the refrigerater. The remainder of the placenta can stay intact, along with the cord to baby until it falls off naturally. This allows a modified version of both lotus and encapsulation while understanding you are not receiving either in full - resulting in fewer capsules, no cord keepsake, and some will be severed (not full lotus.)
Remember that we need to start the process within the first 24 hours (ideally) to 48 hours of the birth. We do this because the hormones within the placenta will begin to metabolize and change.
If the placenta is encapsulated after 4-5 days, has been kept cool and does not spoil, the capsules will not be as potent from a hormonal standpoint. While the iron and other nutrients take longer to break down, choosing a more optimal lotus birth could result in potentially less effective placenta capsules. Lotus also tends to involve salting of the placenta. Adding that much sodium into the capsules is not going to be good for a system and is a step that would be better skipped.
The modified options above (a, b) offer a lotus-type gentle birth while also having the full benefit from the placenta capsules, and those are what PBi believes to be best.
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3. Which is better, consuming the placenta Raw or using the Traditional Chinese Medicine method?
According to Traditional Chinese Medicine, cooling foods are best in the first 48 hours postpartum. Raw foods, thus raw placenta, are used to help calm the hormonal rush and blood flow down. After the first 48 hours, warming foods are most beneficial. Cooked or steamed foods (prepared and/or encapsulated placenta) are used to help rebuild blood, chi, and slowly increase the body's endocrine functions.
Encapsulating the prepared placenta allows for longer term of ingestion, possibly providing a longer time of benefits.
To consume the placenta raw, it is not recommended to chew it. Mastication is considered a harsh process and imparts negative energy into the live tissue. If the placenta needs to be severed, it is recommended to be done with sharp kitchen shears. To consume raw, sever a small pea size and hold under tongue like a homeopathic pellet for as long as possible, then swallow whole with fluids. Instructions on proper care, handling, preparation, and consumption of raw placenta are available at Nourishing Origins.
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4. Are there special considerations when making a placenta smoothie?
According to Traditional Chinese Medicine, blending, pulverizing, or masticating the raw placenta is harsh and imparts negative energy into the live tissue. It is neither recommended to chew nor blend raw, fresh, or frozen placenta for smoothies. Adding prepared placenta for smoothies 48 hours postpartum is a viable option.
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5. The placenta is a filter, so does it store the toxins it filters, and the mother ends up ingesting them too when she uses the capsules?
The placenta is a part of an advanced filtering system. Nutrients from the mother get passed to the baby via the placenta, which tries to filter out anything harmful to the baby before letting it get through. The baby passes waste back to the mother through the placenta, which the mother's body can then remove, just as her body removes all the other waste products in her system. The placenta is not a filter that traps everything that can't get through, like an air filter. Those waste products and other things that the baby can't use are generally sent back out to the mother for removal. If the placenta held onto everything, it would be a health hazard after nine months! So, no, the placenta is not filled with toxins by the time the baby is born. That being said, there are some things that do get held by the placenta, such as heavy metals. So if a mother smokes, the heavy metals in the cigarette smoke will build up in the placenta over time, making it questionable whether or not it should be ingested.
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