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What is the placenta? -

The placenta grows from conception until birth, and it's also the only organ your body makes and then expels. It looks round and flat, and at delivery time it weighs around one pound.

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Placentophagy -

Placentophagy is the practice of eating your own placenta, and it's very common among mammals. For example, it might reduce labor pains in a female dog as her remaining puppies are born, and it can encourage the mother to bond with her newborns. Human placentophagy isn't new either, since different cultures have done it through history, but it's significantly less common.

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Anecdotal health benefits -

People who endorse eating the placenta claim that it can raise your energy, increase breast milk quantity, reduce postpartum bleeding, and provide important micronutrients. These claims have not been fully tested, however, so there is no scientific proof backing it up. But some experts say we should continue to study it.

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Anecdotal health benefits -

Many also say it can level off your hormones, thus lowering your chances of postpartum depression and insomnia. Though those are, again, not scientifically proven, the placenta does have healthy protein and fats. But those nutrients can also be found in a regular healthy diet.

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Ways to consume it -

The most common way is by steaming and dehydrating the placenta and processing it into a powder form, then putting it in capsules. People have also been known to eat the placenta raw, cooked, or in smoothies or liquid extracts.

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The dangers -

The placenta may contain infectious bacteria and viruses that, when consumed by the mother and passed on through her breast milk to her newborn, could cause illness in the baby. If you're thinking about it, you should talk to your doctor before consuming your own organ.

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Modern criticism -

Studies on the popularity of placentophagy despite the lack of scientific evidence highlight that not enough attention is being paid to postpartum depression. NPR cites one study from the US and Denmark, which writes that this new placenta economy reflects "the idea of maternity as a neoliberal project, in which new mothers are responsible for their own individual well-being as well as that of their babies."

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Kim Kardashian -

Kim K ate her placenta via capsule after giving birth to Saint. She didn't take it with North, though she was toying with the idea at the time. According to Romper, she wrote on her blog back in 2015, "I really didn't want the baby blues and thought I can't go wrong with taking a pill made of my own hormones—made by me, for me. I started researching and read about so many moms who felt this same way and said the overall healing process was so much easier."

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Kim Kardashian -

After having tried it, the mother of two wrote in December 2015, “Every time I take a pill, I feel a surge of energy and feel really healthy and good. I totally recommend it for anyone considering it.”

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Kourtney Kardashian - Before Kim, Kourtney had already consumed her placenta after birthing her son Reign. She posted the pictures of her pills on Instagram and wrote, "Yummy...PLACENTA pills! No joke...I will be sad when my placenta pills run out. They are life changing! #benefits #lookitup."

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Khloé Kardashian -

Like her two older sisters, Khloé revealed on 'Keeping Up with the Kardashians' that she planned on "eating" her placenta in pill form.

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Chrissy Teigen -

The supermodel believed eating her placenta after the birth of her second child was how she could avoid postpartum depression. "I don't think I can have you eating your placenta on primetime," Rita Braver shared in their CBS interview. Teigen laughed, "Really? That's not a normal thing? I'm in LA, it's very normal. They grill it here. You can try some of mine after."

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Elle King -

One day after announcing the birth of her son, the singer-songwriter took to Instagram with a heartfelt shoutout to her mother and doula, London King. The photo depicted London preparing Elle's placenta for consumption. "She is seen here cooking my placenta to encapsulate it for all the amazing benefits!" Elle wrote.

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January Jones -

In 2012, 'Mad Men' star January Jones told People magazine that she'd been ingesting her placenta to help regain strength and replenish her body. “It's not gross or witchcraft-y. Nor am I putting it in a shake or eating it raw. It's a very civilized thing that can help women with depression or fatigue. I was never depressed or sad or down after the baby was born, so I'd highly suggest it to any pregnant woman.”

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Alicia Silverstone -

The 'Clueless' actress said on 'Live! with Kelly and Michael,' “Someone gifted me my placenta in the form of a pill. They encapsulate it. And I have to tell you that I really loved it. I got to the point that my husband said, 'Did you have your happy pills today? And I was really sad when they were gone. It really helped me.”

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Mayim Bialik -

'The Big Bang Theory' actress took to her blog advocate for placentophagy. "I ingested my placenta. I am not a bad person, a crazy person, or a freak and neither is Alicia Silverstone or January Jones," she wrote. "Human beings are the only mammals that have chosen to not routinely ingest their placenta, which is consumed by every other mammal for its protein and iron-rich properties that are critical in helping the mother's body recuperate after giving birth."

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Hilary Duff -

The actress mentioned in 2018 that she consumed her placenta in delicious berry smoothies after giving birth to her daughter, Banks. "And I'm still completely repulsed by it," she said on Whitney Cummings' podcast two years later. "I know it sounds gross, but it's so bad*** a woman can grow a temporary organ. And then you can eat it!"

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Nikki Reed -

Nikki Reed and Ian Somerhalder welcomed daughter Bodhi in August 2017, and a couple months later she wrote on Instagram, "Last day of placenta pills. Not ready to say goodbye!!!!!"

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Gaby Hoffmann -

The 'Girls' actress froze her placenta and added it to daily smoothies: "You don't taste [it]. I made smoothies out of it for three weeks. I had a home birth, so my midwife and my doula took it and cut it up into 20 pieces and froze it, and every day, I put it in a blender with strawberries and blueberries and guava juice and a banana, and I drank that s— up.”

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Tia and Tamera Mowry -

Tia did not eat her own placenta, but instead tried her twin sister's liquified one (blended with brandy) during the season finale of their reality show 'Tia & Tamera.'

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Padma Lakshmi -

The TV personality and food expert revealed in her memoir 'Love, Loss, and What We Ate' that she consumed her powdered placenta in pill form after the birth of her daughter because she feared postpartum depression. "I would have done anything to defend myself against collapsing from stress and fatigue and succumbing to the postpartum depression I was so afraid would beset me,' the 'Top Chef' host wrote.

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Princess Love -

The 'Love & Hip Hop: Hollywood' alum reportedly shared footage on her Instagram Story in January 2020 of her placenta being sprinkled with lemon, cayenne pepper, and ginger before it was cooked, cut, blended, and encapsulated.

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Christina Haack -

The HGTV star, who shares two children with ex-husband Tarek El Moussa and one son with Ant Anstead, revealed that she had taken placenta capsules. “First time I've tried it—and I think these placenta encapsulation [pills] are working,” she wrote a week after giving birth to her son with Ant.

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Blac Chyna -

The reality TV star revealed her plan to eat her placenta after giving birth to her baby girl with Rob Kardashian. "Just recently I found out some new, cool stuff about not cutting the cord and sending your placenta; you can get these pills to take them after to make you and the baby healthy," she said during the 'Loveline' podcast with Amber Rose in September 2016. "If you notice dogs and cats, when they have their babies, they eat the placenta. You're like, 'No, don't do that!' But they do, it's a healthy thing."

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Katherine Heigl -

The actress and her husband welcomed a baby boy in 2016, and the following year Heigl told People magazine that she had worked with a naturopath throughout her pregnancy, and says she had been happily popping placenta pills since just after her C-section after hearing about it from another mother in the hospital.

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Lala Kent -

The 'Vanderpump Rules' star shared a photo on her Instagram Stories in March 2021 showing her placenta capsules from the company Mommy Made, along with her daughter's gold-dipped umbilical cord.

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Teddi Mellencamp -

The 'Real Housewives of Beverly Hills' star reportedly gushed about her placenta pills in a March 2020 Instagram Story, saying, "I'm, like, beyond obsessed. I'm scared for them to run out. I didn't have them with Slate. I swear when I did them with Cruz and now when I take them with Dove, I have so much energy."

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Samantha Bee -

The 'Full Frontal with Samantha Bee' host explained to Babble: “For me, it was like taking a megadose of iron, except in this case, the iron was generated by me, in my very own miraculous human body! What could be better?” She added that she didn't take them every day because they made her feel "ever-so-slightly jittery," but that they comforted her.

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Brittany Cartwright -

 The 'Vanderpump Rules' alum wrote in an April 2021 Instagram post that she was “so excited” to try her placenta capsules.

Sources: (WebMD) (Mayo Clinic) (E! News) (Romper) (NPR) (Us Weekly)

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