I always wonder if people who write columns about their marriages/children run this stuff by their partner/children who are old enough.
Maybe she's totally okay with him announcing when her looks will go and hearing that seeing her give birth made him want to vomit, but for a lot of people this would be a road post on the way to splitsville.
I find the whole placenta thing mildly gross, but I can't get super grossed out about anything that was once part of me. I just wouldn't eat it.
I think it's kind of amazing that there are people out there who convert placentas into pills FULLTIME. I can't stop imagining first dates... "So, what do you do?" "Convert placentas into pill form so mothers can take them!"
Placenta eating is just creepy in general to me. I don't think it's particularly gross (I'm into "delicacies" like sweet breads so), but it's just another ritual in the cult of parenthood if you ask me.
There is a hair conditioner called Placenta, no lie. I think it's made of animal placentas (among other ingredients). You can get it at Sally Beauty Supply. So, the new mother could also emulsify the placenta with some olive oil and have a spa day!
(I haven't tried the Placenta conditioner, but I do love the Queen Helene Cholesterol).
@happysquid: Ugh, I've seen that photo before, felt nauseous, and sent it to a girlfriend who said she nearly wretched in her kitchen sink. It gives me the same nasty feeling as the concept of cannibalism.
So, your kid is a miracle and gorgeous, but the organ that made it possible for your wife to make your kid is disgusting? As your wife will be when she is 50?
Honestly, I think Joel Stein is disgusting NOW - way more so than placenta is, or a woman of 50. Who the fuck talks like that about their life partner? I don't care that it's supposed to be "funny".
As to eating placentas, there's some evidence that it helps with post-partum depression, and anemia. Other mammals do it, I'm not sure why we shouldn't. If you are eating your own placenta, you aren't going to get sick from it or anything. While I personally am a bit weirded out by the cooking aspects of it, I am less so of the post-partum smoothie or the encapsulated pill form. Hospitals usually sell women's placentas to major pharmacutical companies who use it in haircare products, body creams, and other stuff. Why should THEY get all the benefits, but the woman who MADE it, shouldn't get any? Not even financial compensation when the hospital makes money off her organs?
To each their own, I say (get it?). But the "OMG THAT IS SO GROSS" comments always seem really immature to me. How is that contributing to the discussion?
@nex0s: I actually used to use a moisturiser made with placenta until my MIL told me about impoverished Indian women who were forced to become pregnant so that their placentas could be 'harvested' for big cosmetic companies. I would much rather eat or use my own placenta than one produced in this way. How are people so disgusted by their own body parts?
@mrsryan: Also of note is that the only feminist he can name is apparently Betty Friedan. Like, not even Steinem. FRIEDAN. Who, incidentally, has been dead for several years.
I totally feel Joel. I don't look like a frumpy, heavy, unkept, hairy, fetus-eating bonerkilling dyke like people expect. It can really confuse the small-brained. That's why I wear my "I hate men" shirt and carry a hatchet.
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07/02/09
Maybe she's totally okay with him announcing when her looks will go and hearing that seeing her give birth made him want to vomit, but for a lot of people this would be a road post on the way to splitsville.
I find the whole placenta thing mildly gross, but I can't get super grossed out about anything that was once part of me. I just wouldn't eat it.
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can you please explain further?
What are the other rituals?
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(I haven't tried the Placenta conditioner, but I do love the Queen Helene Cholesterol).
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Brace yerself...
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Honestly, I think Joel Stein is disgusting NOW - way more so than placenta is, or a woman of 50. Who the fuck talks like that about their life partner? I don't care that it's supposed to be "funny".
As to eating placentas, there's some evidence that it helps with post-partum depression, and anemia. Other mammals do it, I'm not sure why we shouldn't. If you are eating your own placenta, you aren't going to get sick from it or anything. While I personally am a bit weirded out by the cooking aspects of it, I am less so of the post-partum smoothie or the encapsulated pill form. Hospitals usually sell women's placentas to major pharmacutical companies who use it in haircare products, body creams, and other stuff. Why should THEY get all the benefits, but the woman who MADE it, shouldn't get any? Not even financial compensation when the hospital makes money off her organs?
To each their own, I say (get it?). But the "OMG THAT IS SO GROSS" comments always seem really immature to me. How is that contributing to the discussion?
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As for one's own placenta ... I think it's unhealthy to be horrified by any part of one's own body, but eating it is a slightly different proposal.
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