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Tik Tok is full of trends, including trends that include eating your placenta or having a lotus birth. But is this a trend that has existed throughout human history? The placenta is an extremely unique organ that humans have been fascinated with for centuries. From Pharaohs carrying their placentas into battle to hanging placentae in trees, there is a wide range of cultural beliefs and traditions surrounding this organ. Join us in this episode to discover the world of the placenta and talk about the health risk of these placental trends for women today. 

Feminist Corner:

• How do you approach conversations with patients about health trends? What is some advice to give to listeners if they are interested in various health trends?
• What does a story like this teach us about cultural competency?

Listen to the episode, discuss these questions with friends and family, let us know what you think!

Show Notes:

In this episode we discuss the super special organ unique to pregnancy: the placenta!

What is the placenta?

·  An organ that develops from the fertilized egg starting in the first week of pregnancy

·  The placenta is attached to the mother on one side, and to the baby on the other via the umbilical cord.

·  It functions as a pseudo-lungs for the baby, a place where maternal and fetal blood can become close to each other, allowing for exchange of oxygen and nutrients.

·  The placenta also acts as an endocrine organ, secreting hormones such as HCG, progesterone, estrogen, leptin and more!

Who else has a placenta?

·  Only vertebrates have placentas, and more specifically, mammals.

·  Some non-mammals have placenta like structures for their young, including sting rays, ground sharks, Poecilipis fish, and frogs.

·  Marsupials even have placentas!

What have humans thought about their placentas? What have different cultures thought about it?

·  Pre-Socratic philosophers believed that the fetus breathed directly through the placenta.

·  In Ancient Egypt, people held the placenta in high regard. They believed it was a the protector of the child and there was even an office held for the Pharoah’s placenta.

·  Many other cultures had beliefs about the placenta that involved burials, trees, and the placenta protecting the child.

·  In a University of Nevada study, they looked at 179 cultures and found that 109 had placenta related rituals. None of these rituals included eating the placenta.

Today, there are multiple placenta trends.

Lotus birth is the practice of leaving the placenta attached to the baby through not cutting the umbilical cord, until the placenta and cord dies off.

·  The perceived benefits include Increased blood and nourishments, decreased belly button injury, and a gentler transition into the world. None of these are scientifically proven.

–    It is gold standard to cut the cord after 30 seconds to a minute, which has proven benefits of include improved transitional circulation, better establishment of red blood cell volume, decreased need for blood transfusion, and lower incidence of necrotizing enterocolitis and intraventricular hemorrhage.

·  Risk of lotus birth include infection, sepsis, jaundice, and hepatitis.

Placentoaphagy is the practice of eating the placenta, either raw or after preparation.

·  The perceived benefits are increased milk supply, improved energy, and lower levels of postpartum depression. However, there is no human studies to provide these benefits.

·  Risks include infections, passing on of disease, decreasing milk supply, increase of postpartum clots, and more.·  This trend started because animals eat their placenta, which is because animal placentas have a naturally occurring opioid to help with labor pains.

Sources:

Coffee, C. over. (2022, October 23). Popular birthing trends and the OB/GYN. CREOGS Over Coffee. https://creogsovercoffee.com/notes/2022/10/23/popular-birthing-trends-and-the-obgyn?rq=trend

DE WITT, F. (1959). An historical study on theories of the placenta to 1900. Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, XIV(7), 360–374. https://doi.org/10.1093/jhmas/xiv.7.360

Delayed umbilical cord clamping after birth. ACOG. (n.d.). https://www.acog.org/clinical/clinical-guidance/committee-opinion/articles/2020/12/delayed-umbilical-cord-clamping-after-birth#:~:text=on%20developmental%20outcomes.-,Delayed%20umbilical%20cord%20clamping%20is%20associated%20with%20significant%20neonatal%20benefits,necrotizing%20enterocolitis%20and%20intraventricular%20hemorrhage.

Gunter, J. (2018, September 6). Thank you for not eating your placenta. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/06/style/placenta-eating-postpartum-placentophagy.html

Honoring the placenta in different cultures. Cord Blood Banking. (n.d.). https://parentsguidecordblood.org/en/news/honoring-placenta-different-cultures

Ober, W. (1979). NOTES ON PLACENTOPHAGY. Bully NY Academic Medicine , 55(6).

Placenta Development and Physiology . UpToDate. (n.d.). https://www.uptodate.com/contents/placental-development-and-physiology

Placentarisks. PlacentaRisks. (2018, November 28). https://placentarisks.org/

Roberts RM, Green JA, Schulz LC. The evolution of the placenta. Reproduction. 2016 Nov;152(5):R179-89. doi: 10.1530/REP-16-0325. Epub 2016 Aug 2. PMID: 27486265; PMCID: PMC5033709.Sapiens. (2023, September 3). The rebirth of placenta rituals. SAPIENS. https://www.sapiens.org/biology/placenta/

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