By
Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 12:23 AM on 24th January 2012
Some mothers – and chefs – swear by the nutritional properties of the placenta.
Now parents are being offered the chance to benefit from its vitamin and mineral content in pill form.
For £175, midwife Caroline Baddiley will collect a new mother’s placenta within a few hours of a baby being born.
Caroline
Baddiley, pictured after slicing the collected placenta into small
parts, says consuming afterbirth increases milk production, boosts iron
and reduces the chances of post natal depression
She then cooks it in a steamer, dehydrates it, and grinds the result into a powder which can be easily ingested by swallowing a capsule.
Some of the benefits of consuming placenta are said to include enhanced breast milk production and a reduction in the risk of post-natal depression.
Mrs Baddiley’s very personal service results in delivery of up to 120 capsules.
She said: ‘The placenta is a rich source of hormones and chemicals and it’s thought that by preserving it, some of those factors can go back to the mother. The benefits if they consume the placenta are well documented.
Mothers, who pay £175 for the service,
are advised to take two or three pills a day for the first four to six
weeks and then as and when after that
‘Taking it in capsule form is certainly more appealing and palatable than the alternative. My customers don’t have to handle it or smell or taste it at all.’
Mrs Baddiley, a vegetarian from Poole in Dorset, had to pass strict food hygiene tests for her new business. After her work featured on a recent television documentary, inquiries have trebled.
She added: ‘Mothers-to-be sign an agreement with me and as soon as they give birth, their husbands call me and I go and collect the placenta.
‘I bring it home and cook it for 20 minutes in a steamer. It is then sliced up and put in a food dehydrator for 12 hours and then ground in a coffee grinder to a fine powder.
‘I use a machine to put the powder into the capsule and they then go in a jar and are delivered by post to the mother.
Baddiley takes the afterbirth home and steams it in her kitchen for 20 minutes, then slices it into
small parts before putting it into a food dehydrator for 12 hours
‘The capsules look like a herbal remedy. A large placenta will make 90 to 120 capsules.’
In the wild, mammals bite through the umbilical cord and eat the placenta straight after the birth.
Television chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall caused controversy 14 years ago when he fried a placenta with shallots and garlic and turned it into pate for a Channel 4 programme.
The placenta pill was the brainchild of American Lynnea Shrief who formed the Independent Placenta Encapsulation Network two years ago.
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No not at that price I wouldn’t. The placenta is amazing with the work it does and it seems a sheme to throw it away. That said though I couldn’t eat mine or anything like that. The pills I could do if they were cheaper, after all I would be the one doing the hard labour to get the placenta.
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Why has this suddenly become news??? I’m a midwife in the uk and this has been going on for a long time. Obviously it was a quiet day at The Mail so they thought they would make a story out of nothing
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I just love the way commenter are absolutely disgusted by this. If only you knew what was in that burger, pie, mince or whatever other bit of processed meat you are eating contains. This is nothing. If only you knew the truth!
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Would I take a pill made out of my own placenta ? Heck, I wouldn’t even take a pill made out of someone elses placenta
– mick blair, thailand, 24/1/2012 5:16
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ If you have ever eaten pies, sausages, mince or any other form of processed meat you probably have eaten placenta, animal placenta – sorry to upset you but it is a fact.
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Would I take a pill made out of my own placenta ? Heck, I wouldn’t even take a pill made out of someone elses placenta
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Another reason I’m glad to be a man!
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After watching ‘how to be a good mother’, I would actually consider doing this. Not sure about the £175 price tag to make the capsules! And I would like to know that this is regulated. But hey.. Animals eat their own placentas and it hasn’t done them any harm
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Oooo not for me
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Placebo effect, surely?! If it is steamed, dehydrated and then ground up it would lose all the hormones and nutrients? On a side note, the photo makes the dried, sliced placenta look like some dodgy doner kebab meat!
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Why make it into pills I’m sure it would be ok with a vindaloo sauce.
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