Category: Placenta

What's the deal with placentas?

5/15/2017

Photo by Megan Brown Photography

I remember the first time I heard about women eating their placentas. I was watching Pregnant in Heels on Bravo and the host made a placenta smoothie for one of her clients. I thought it was totally gross. Why on earth would anyone want to do that?? Well, now I feel like I need to apologize to that mom for judging her, because there are some pretty compelling reasons to consume your placenta.

I have two kids who are equally amazing, but their entrances into this world could not have been more different. My son's birth was traumatic and I had a very difficult time coping afterwards. I wasn't eating. I was barely able to take care of myself and my son. Everything was overwhelming. Fortunately with the love and support of my family I got through that time. When I became pregnant a second time, I knew I wanted things to be different. Honestly, I was terrified that I would go through postpartum depression again.

Here's where my placenta came in. Now...I am a doula and have a few hippie tendencies, but I am all for evidence-based practices and medicine. I was fairly skeptical about the whole placenta pill thing, to be honest. I really appreciated how up front Becca (who was my doula for my daughter's birth) was about the lack of proper research that existed on placentophagy. She told me what women had reported about their own experiences and left it for me to decide what to do.

I decided to take the pills...because if it helped me avoid feeling like I did after my son was born, it would be worth it. Becca encapsulated my placenta and a few days after I gave birth I received around 200 pills. They weren't gross at all. It was just like taking any other supplement in a capsule. As soon as I got the pills I started taking them every day.

So what's the verdict? Personally, I believe that they helped me a great deal. The first few weeks postpartum were nothing like what I had gone through before. I actually felt pretty amazing. I wasn't weepy. I didn't have the anxiety that plagued me after my son was born. I could function and I could bond with my new baby. It took me by surprise how easy it was.

I can't say whether it was a placebo effect or not. It really doesn't matter to me, to be honest. Either way it was effective and I would do it again in a heartbeat. Truthfully, I would be willing do much more difficult things than having my placenta encapsulated if it meant avoiding postpartum depression. It was completely worth it and I would encourage any pregnant woman to give it a try. Talk to Becca, because she won't steer you wrong!

Take care,
Sarah Weaver
sarahisadoula.com

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Slow things down with Cord Burning

8/30/2016

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You’ve probably heard of delayed cord clamping, but what about cord burning? This is a beautiful, ancient process that’s not very well-known, but is a lovely way to savor the early moments of your child’s life.

AthensBorn Birth Services - Cord Burning by AppleBlossomFamilies

Cord burning is the process of using heat (fire from a candle, usually) to sever the baby’s umbilical cord after birth, rather than the typical cutting. Basically, after the placenta has been delivered, the baby is snuggled skin-to-skin on mother’s chest with cord intact and still attached to the placenta. Then, a “burn box” (check out the beautiful ones here) or homemade “shield” made of aluminum foil-covered cardboard is placed around the cord with the aluminum foil facing the placenta. The cord is held over a candle flame and rotated for 10-15 minutes until it burns through and separates. After the end of the cord has cooled, the half of the cord that’s attached to the baby will be curled into a spiral or tied into a knot on the baby’s stomach and wrapped with gauze until the next day. When the gauze is removed, the cord spiral or knot will air-dry and is likely to fall off just a few days later.

You may be asking what the benefits of cord burning are. After all, it requires some extra help, takes a lot longer than clamping and cutting, and adds a bit of additional work to the intense work already involved in birthing a baby. Allow me to pontificate…

If you’ve had a baby, think back to the first hour after your baby was born. It’s often called the “Golden Hour” - in which the new family is (supposedly) peaceful, calm, and falling in love with their newborn. However, it often seems like it’s all business - the business of clamping and cutting the cord, expelling the placenta, and basically rushing the separation of the baby from all it’s ever known into this new, cold, bright, loud world. I like to think of cord burning as a refreshing way to slow it all down. It’s a very intentional way to allow families to savor the connection of the baby to the mother’s body, rather than blindly running forward into this newness.

Also, consider your ‘village.” Cord burning can be a way for the partner, doula, midwife, and even the baby’s older siblings to be involved in the baby’s birth. What a beautiful way for a baby to be introduced to their community!

Medically speaking, cord burning can be a great way to separate the cord when there aren’t sterile medical supplies available - clamps and scissors. There are also known physical benefits to delayed cord clamping, which necessarily precedes cord burning.

Cord burning may not be for everyone. In fact, the way it stands, in Athens it’s just an option for homebirth babies since the hospitals don’t allow an open flame in the birth rooms (and for good reason!). But now you know there’s another option for you to consider as you plan out your ideal “Golden Hour.”

Love,
Becca

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Give the gift of a doula...

8/9/2016

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Dear Friends and Family Members of Pregnant People,

Hello, and welcome to the AthensBorn blog! This post is for you, by virtue of whoever it is you know who is currently expecting a child. Did you know that it’s possible to gift someone a doula? Yes, it’s true! You can purchase our services as a gift!

“….but why, Becca, why would I do that??? And how, and what services? Tell me more!” you say? Well, let me tell you!

First, let’s start with which services you can gift: ALL THE SERVICES!

From prenatal services to birth to placenta and postpartum services, we do it all, and it can all be given as a gift to a pregnant woman.

Why gift a Mother Blessing....
Because this is a beautiful way to honor a woman as she prepares for birth and motherhood. It’s not a baby shower… it’s a feminine, powerful, spiritual, and personal ushering into motherhood by an expectant mother’s own closest female friends and family.

Why gift a birth doula….
Because people benefit from having doulas by their side in labor. A woman with a doula feels supported and informed, which helps her have a more satisfying birth experience… regardless of the outcome of her birth.

Why gift placenta services…
Because placenta encapsulation is a great way to help a woman ease her transition from birth to having a newborn. Taking placenta pills can help ease her fatigue, hormonal imbalances, and give her back some of the nutrients she lost during birth.

Why gift a postpartum doula...
Because we don’t have the village around us - parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins - that generations past had to help care for a newborn and a mama recovering from birth. It’s less common in our society for a family to be surrounded by available, helping hands than it ever has been, but there’s more pressure to strive for “perfection” than ever, and that’s hard on a postpartum mama. A postpartum doula can help bring some of that back into the early postpartum days.

Visit our website for more information about how to make a gift of our services (electronic or on paper) for someone you know.

Whether you want to contribute a small amount toward a family’s services or purchase the whole shebang; whether it’s a surprise or something you’ve discussed with the parents, please consider this as an alternative to the traditional gifts. A family never forgets their pregnancy, birth, and early postpartum days - help them to cherish these moments by gifting them doula services to help them navigate resources, information, and options. We can answer any questions you have and even set up a consultation with you and/or the parents before you make your final choice.

Happy Gifting!
Becca

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The Magical Placenta

8/2/2016

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Hi friends!

At Athensborn, we’re currently offering a new service:

Placenta Encapsulation. AKA, “after my baby’s birth, I’m going to eat my placenta.”

Now, before you react like my dad did when I explained to him exactly what that meant (“But that’s cannibalism!”) please hear me out.

The placenta is an organ that is created during your pregnancy, and grows alongside your little one until birth. It attaches to the wall of the uterus and is responsible for providing baby all of his/her nutrients and oxygen. Placentas are thought to be full of hormones and nutrients that can contribute to postpartum healing, mood stabilization, healthy milk supply, and energy levels. Now, full disclosure: the bulk of the current evidence pointing to these benefits is anecdotal, meaning women who took placenta pills commonly report these things. There simply haven't been enough peer-reviewed studies done on these specific benefits, which means that there is not yet scientific backing for it. We encourage each of our clients to talk to their healthcare provider, talk to anyone they know who has experienced this, and read the research that is out there and decide for themselves if this is right for them.

There’s more great information about the placenta here, and you can also learn about the placenta services we offer. But before you do that, I’d like to share some of my personal thoughts about placentophagy (ingestion of the placenta).

The first thing I’d like to share is that I’ve never eaten my own placenta. I have no first-hand evidence of any of this, I can’t tell you what it tastes like, I can’t tell you how it made me feel. But I feel like that’s really not important, because my body is different from yours. My births were different than yours, and my postpartum experience was different than yours - every woman experiences each of these monumental life events in a unique way, and owns her own experience. No one can tell you with certainty how taking placenta pills is going to make you feel, nor should they.

The second thing I want to share is that before I began my research into placenta encapsulation and took my training course through IPPA (International Placenta and Postpartum Association) I was not interested in eating my placenta. It didn’t weird me out if someone else wanted to eat theirs, but I didn’t feel like I needed to eat mine. And that’s totally cool. No one should tell you that you have to eat your placenta. Again, this is an experience that each woman has to own and decide for herself.

My third and final thought to share is that if I have another baby, I’m absolutely going to encapsulate my placenta. I’m going to see if it keeps me from feeling like I’m losing my mind in my early postpartum days, because I know what that feels like and I’m willing to do almost anything to avoid it. I’m going to make myself a placenta tincture to see if it will do anything to alleviate the menstrual-related migraines I’ve gotten nearly every month for decades. I’m going to carry that tincture with me into menopause and see how it treats me as I enter that vulnerable and powerful time of my life.

Y’all, I don’t see myself as a hippie. I really don’t (please ignore the fact that I cloth diapered my babies and make my own soap and deodorant. Those were totally financial decisions. Oh, and I recycle anything with a triangle on it. And, I compost and plant a garden every spring. You know what, I’m ruining my “I’m not a hippie!” case, nevermind.) The point is, I’ve read the research. I’ve looked into it, I’ve explored the possibilities, I’ve learned about the process, and I’m on board with it.

Please, please know that I would never presume to tell anyone else what to do. Just as with all of our labor and postpartum clients, I will tell anyone interested in our placenta services what their options and choices are, and leave it up to them to decide. That’s how we operate here at AthensBorn. And I wouldn’t have it any other way!

Lots of love and a little bit of placenta dust,
Becca

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An Unlikely Doula

2/3/2016

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Hi! I’m Becca.

I love birth. I love birth stories, I love thinking and reading about it, I love pregnant people. It’s a beautiful obsession.

But I wasn’t always this way.

I like to think of my life as “before witnessing birth” and “after witnessing birth.” Most of my life I was not only disinterested in pregnancy and birth, but--get this!--kind of grossed out by the whole concept. Then my twin sister got pregnant and I was there when she gave birth to my perfect nephew. Y’all, I had never seen power and beauty like that before.

Now, I know every birth is different, but since then, I’ve attended quite a few births (including two of my own) and I can conclude that power and beauty are pretty much best friends with labor and birth. I know that many laboring people probably don’t feel beautiful when they’re peeing on the floor and moaning. When they’re gasping for breath and praying for each contraction to be over, they often don’t feel powerful. But, I consider it part of my job to help each laboring person realize that they are beautiful and powerful. Everyone deserves that. This is a big part of why I decided to pursue birth work.

When it comes to the non-birthy side of me, I live in Statham with my 2 independent, smart, funny kids. In my free time I like to read the Twilight novels (don’t hate me), use swear words in creative ways, go hiking, paint, and stay up way too late Netflixing. I’m into power tools, I like cutting the grass, but I hate when my hands get dirty. I find it relaxing to clean my kitchen but doing laundry makes my skin crawl. I came out as a lesbian in my mid-30's, which led to all kinds of massive transition in my life: divorce, single parenting, navigating a newly-discovered identity, re-creating my life and community. The whole shebang. Life really surprises you sometimes.

If you ever considered hiring a doula, please contact one. Find a way to pay for it. Whether it’s Kate and me here at AthensBorn or someone else in town, you deserve to have someone by your side while you’re giving birth who will make sure you feel beautiful and powerful as you do your work.

Best of luck to you on your journey.

Much love,
Becca

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Ramblings & Musings

What's the deal with placentas?

Slow things down with Cord Burning

Give the gift of a doula...

The Magical Placenta

An Unlikely Doula

Kate & Becca

Categories

Archives

Telephone

Email

Ramblings & Musings

What's the deal with placentas?

Slow things down with Cord Burning

Give the gift of a doula...

The Magical Placenta

An Unlikely Doula

Kate & ​Becca

Categories

Archives

Telephone

Email

Kate & Becca