WHY I’M ENCAPSULATING MY PLACENTA

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So you’ve probably been hearing a lot about encapsulating your placenta lately.  I’ve been so fascinated by the whole process and wanted to share with you all today why I’m doing and what the benefits are.  Firstly, I am not the one encapsulating my placenta haha.  A lot of you asked that.  I’m going through Rachel from Living Mom.  She has been in the birth world for 22 years! She’s a home birth midwife and childbirth educator.  She’s one of the longest and most experienced placenta encapsulator in the state. She’s been doing it for 10 years and absolutely adores offering this service to postpartum mamas.  It is the biggest BLESSING to aid in a mothers and babies recovery and overall mental and physical health. 

If you go to her page under Placenta Encapsulation you’ll see a bunch of different packages.  She has different boosts of herbs and vitamins that target specific things you’re going through to help you benefit the most from it.  This is along with your placenta. 

So firstly, the reason I wanted to do this was after having Oaks I experienced a lot of baby blues hardcore in the first 2 weeks.  Then I slowly started to see the last after that and it got better, but I continued having major anxiety a few months after Oaks was born, so this really drew me in once I heard about it.  I’ve heard SO MANY of you that did it and shared your stories with.  I haven’t heard that it hasn’t worked once by anyone.  I’ve heard that they still had postpartum depression, but not nearly as hardcore as their last.  It was much more manageable to handle.  Other than that, I’ve just heard mamas raving over it saying they could actually enjoy their newborn this time around. I talked a lot about becoming a new mom and my BABY BLUES in that post if you want to read more.  It’s not that I didn’t enjoy Oaks, it’s just that I felt very foggy, sad and anxious from all my hormones going SO whacky.   I was in heaven, but also hell with all of my hormones being ripped from my body all of the sudden, aka my placenta which carries all of your hormones and the babies.  So it makes complete sense to me to replenish those hormones back into your body slowly, so you can feel back to yourself again. 

I’m going to jump right into your questions you had that I pulled from my IG when I asked what questions you had.  Firstly, to give you more background on her and how its all made.. 

She has recently developed a new process that is very unique and revolutionary. She’s currently finishing up the patenting process as she’s convinced no other placenta encapsulator is using it!  She freeze dries your placenta.  This means a safer, longer lasting, more potent and deeper bioavailable placenta for you!  She handles and process your placenta in her personal lab where she uses universal precautions and NSF quality sterile procedures to combat any potential bacteria issues. 

Her process is so exciting because it offers 98-100% hormone, nutrient and enzymes retention while potentially almost doubling the amount of pills and retaining potency.  All other placenta encapsulation processes can only retain somewhere between 40% to 60%, while potentially damaging cell structure walls.  This denatures and adulterated the vitality of your placenta and creates less potency and less pills for you.  Her new process retains almost twice as much hormone, nutrient and enzymatic content along with offering you twice the amount of pills. I’m able to preserve the essential within your placenta which is crucial in postpartum care for you and your newborn infant. 

She is also an herbalist and has been for 18 years. She’s  formulated 5 proprietary wildcrafted/organic herbal blends that you can add to your placenta which specifically target the most common postpartum difficulties.  99% of her clients purchase a blend with their placenta and find much greater benefits doing so though there is the option of ordering our “Au natural” which is just encapsulation of the placenta itself.   So for me I ordered the BYE BYE BABY BLUES PLACENTA. I added in tinctures and strong mama blend into it.

If you feel you have more than one postpartum concern or ailment to combat, you can order a “boost” which is an extra herbal blend you add along with your purchase order. It’s a simple $20 to add as many herbal blends or “boosts” as you think you need.

Before I go into all the questions, you’ve got to watch this woman’s 10 minute testimonial!  WATCH HERE

  1. HOW DOES THE PROCESS WORK?  

    Before delivery, tell let your midwife/doctor you’d like to keep your placenta after delivery for encapsulation.  Also, Once in the hospital for delivery, remember to mention you plan to keep your placenta to the nurses as well.  It’s easiest if you bring a small cooler with you to the hospital adding ice to it once the placenta is delivered and packaged. This guarantees it will stay cool until pick up.  Don’t worry about what people think… aka the nurses or doctor.  I’ve already had weird looks.  This is your birth plan, not theres.

    Once you deliver, you contact her directly via phone call or text. Her working hours for placenta encapsulation is 7 days a week from 9 am to 8 pm.  If you deliver in the middle of the night, text or call within her working hours to let her know you’ve delivered and are ready for pickup. It can take her anywhere between 2-6 hours or so to get to you for pick up of your placenta

    Turn around time for processing and delivery is 48 hours after pick up. They do pick up and drop off unless you live outside of her driving route.  If this is the case, options for pickup can be meeting your husband or friend at any given location within their route.  Or you can chose her shipping option. Though she live in Pleasant Grove, UT, she drives up to SLC weekly for placenta pick up.  

    FOR WORLDWIDE SHIPPING.  Lastly, no matter what state you live in, they do offer shipping at no additional cost!  This option is for those near or far. Great thing is you can live anywhere in Utah or North America and she can process your placenta for you!  It’s easy and simple. 

    Once you’ve made your order, she’ll mail you a shipping box with all the needed items for you to ship your placenta back to her, including a return shipping label.  Please text her number below that you’ve made an order so they can ship your box ASAP!  Once you deliver, you ship your placenta to them, they process it in their normal 48 hours turn around time, and then ship it back to you!  So no matter where you live, she can do this for you!   

  2. WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS?  
    There has been a bit of research done placentophagy from early turn of the last century until the late 50’s. These were studies specifically done on animals ingesting their placentas after delivery. Funding for these types of human studies can be quite expensive. 
     
    In 2016, UNLV did very small group research trials that didn’t give much informative data. The processes used the traditional method of steaming and then drying the placenta. This method denatures hormones, enzymes and nutrients thus potentially skewing results. Yet, one of the studies did find some hormonal benefit even after steaming and drying the placenta. They state, “The results revealed detectable concentrations for 16 of the hormones analyzed, some in concentrations that could conceivably yield physiological effects.”
     
    Unfortunately, there aren’t actual long term, high sample size, peer reviewed studies on this subject for humans. 
     
    All that being said, they have calculated and did their own research over the last 11 years and the results and benefits our clients are seeing. Here are some of the benefits her clients and others are seeing when using placenta encapsulation in the postpartum care. Obviously these aren’t clinical studies, but the feedback they receive is only very positive. 
     
    Please note they are doing things vastly different from other placenta encapsulators with our revolutionary, patent pending process. So the results they’re getting are meaningfully different than from other placenta encapsulation providers. 
     
    • During pregnancy, a woman’s ovaries, pituitary and pineal glands turn over production of critical hormones–progesterone, estrogen, and others–to the placenta. When the baby is born and the placenta is delivered, the mother’s body shifts hormone production back to their normal sources.
    • Within three days after birth, a mother’s hormone levels drop precipitously. It can take anywhere from 6 to 12 weeks before these hormones are back to normal. Some women suffer severe postpartum depressions due to this hormonal disturbance.
    • By returning a woman’s own hormones to her body through placental encapsulation, much of this hormone deficiency can be alleviated naturally, creating HUGE improvements in overall health and well being until her body starts producing the necessary hormones.
    • Furthermore, their proprietary blend of herbs supports and supplements the body’s return to balance.

    Feedback from her clients has shown that their products can:

    • Increase milk secretion and supply
    • Enhance and elevate mood
    • Overall quickened postpartum healing 
    • Decrease baby blues and postpartum depression
    • Increase normal sleep patterns
    • Increase in energy
    • Quickened uterine shrinkage
    • Decreased anxiety and worry
    • Feeling “normal” after delivery
    • Stronger connections and bonding between mom & baby and Mom & other family members
    • Less postpartum bleeding and length of bleeding time 
    • Overall emotional/psychological sense of peace and well being
     
    Placental ingestion not only serves mom and baby but also serves the family as a whole. As we all know….when Mom feels good….We ALL feel GOOD!  Her clients do call them their “happy pills” and state they have seen large improvements in physical and emotional postpartum stability. 
     

    I know some people think this is a placebo affect,  aka some doctors I’ve talked to…  but I beg to differ.  I respect doctors and modern medicine, but what about the patient and what they’re telling you works.   If you’ve been through this  kind of postpartum depression, there is NO way you can mind shift your way out of it.  You can sit and say positive things, but the way you feel is the way you feel.  I remember crying and crying and I had NO reason to.  I would say, I have no idea why I’m so sad, I just want to feel normal.  If you know me, I’m such a happy positive person and can shift my perspective really quick, but there was no way out of this one.  I felt lonely, sad and just so incredibly foggy.  I really cannot wait to take it and see how this does for me!

  3.  CAN IT CAUSE INFECTION?  
    With regards to the processing of the placentas, each placenta is given an identification tag upon arriving at our lab that stays with the placenta until it is shipped or delivered. With the exception of one unit operation, each placenta is processed sequential meaning they do one completely through all the processes then they start the next one.  With regards to the unit operation where they can process up to 4 simultaneously, each placenta is on a separate tray marked with its ID tag so it is not possible to get mixed up with any other placentas. Of course, each  piece of equipment that comes in contact with a placenta is thoroughly cleaned & sanitized after use so that it is ready for the next batch.
     
    They maintain a clinical process arrangement and they have never had any mother report negative effects.  Actually,  the comments they have received over the last 11 years are to the contrary. 
     
    They are in the processing of moving from their previous lab and their currently in construction building a new lab that uses NSF quality sterile procedures. They also use universal precautions and sterile techniques when processing each placenta. 
     
    You can read more about potential bacteria issues under the GBS question below
     
  4.  DO YOU TAKE THE CAPSULES AT A CERTAIN TIME OF DAY?   They send instructions with each placenta pill bottle.  The daily recommended dose is one pill 3x a day. The vast majority of their clients take this recommend dose and find amazing results.  They’ve learned though that each new mama is unique. Some deal with greater postpartum issues than others. In those cases, they work with those specific clients to guarantee she’s taking the proper dose that works best for her and her body. 
  5. CAN YOU ENCAPSULATE IF YOU’RE GBS+?  
    A 2017 publicized single-case study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) involving placenta therapy has created concern about the threat of bacterial contamination of a woman’s encapsulated placenta. The threatening bacteria presumably found in the woman’s placenta pills is Group B Streptoccocus.  Unfortunately, the information shared in this article is vague in reasoning, if not a conclusive far stretch into blaming the placenta pills as the culprit of passing GBS to the baby. After much of our own research and discussion with 2 medical professionals, we found the information to be written as to form a bias against placenta encapsulation without offering near enough conclusive evidence the placenta pills caused the illness in the infant. We had written an unpublished rebuttal to this article for any who might be interested in reading it.
     
    Our understanding about Group B Strep and similar viruses is that about 25% of the pregnant population naturally have these types of organisms that can cause illness in the newborn and or mother present at the time of birth.  We do have procedures and take the necessary precautions to decrease and hopefully eliminate the risk of mom and baby from becoming infected with any diseases related to handling of the placenta. As far as we can tell from information provided by our clients, we have a perfect record of safely delivering nutrient rich and otherwise innocuous placenta pills full of great hormones that boost mother’s ability to recover quickly from her delivery as well as ward of potential illness causing organisms.  In addition to using disease eliminating essential oils and strictly employing NSF handling measures and NSF rated processing equipment at LivingMom Birth, another great line of defense for counteracting the spreading of illness is a woman’s own body. Many research papers highlight a woman’s own ability to provide safe breast milk to her offspring even while infected with some debilitating diseases. We are so confident in our processes and systems that we do provide a money-back guarantee in the highly unlikely event that you do become sick after your delivery and you suspect that your placenta pills may have been related to the cause of the illness. Just let us know and we will speedily return the amount you paid for the encapsulation minus a 20% shipping fee.  Please note, this has never occurred thus far with any of our clients.
     

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Going to do a complete recap after I have this baby and take my placenta.  I’ll keep you posted on my instagram and then do a full blog post on my results.  I feel SO confident taking them and know they will work.  After all of this information on them and the testimonials how can you not?   If you don’t experience postpartum depression, or baby blues, thats amazing!  You’re one of the few.   I wanted to share this because I think it’s so important to talk about this and get this out there.  

I remember telling my doctor I had these feelings and he was so quick to hand over the prozac.  I was a little blown away at that.  It had only been 2 weeks.  I’m not going to get too into those kind of  meds because I know they work for a lot of people, but that isn’t something that I needed to get on.  Because I wasn’t depressed, I just  had a baby and my hormones were SO out of whack!  There is a huge difference.  

Let me know if you have any questions at all!  Be sure to check out her website too!  Living Mom Birth!

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OAKS TOP / PANTS

MY TOP / PANTS

Have a great day!

xoxo,

SARA LYNN