Photo byErin Rudd Photography

Wardrobe provided byModern Mommy Boutique

Today's Question:

Answer:

Consuming the placenta has been found to be beneficial in the postpartum period to help alleviate postpartum hormone fluctuations (aka "baby blues"), increase milk supply, and reduce postpartum bleeding.  More and more women are choosing to ingest their placentas to take advantage of these benefits, and you can read about other benefits of "placentophagy" HERE.

Did You Just Insinuate, “Placenta” and, “Eat” in the Same Sentence?

 

Why, yes. Yes, I did.  When we first heard about it, both Bruss and I were completely grossed out and questioning if the natural birth community had finally gone off the deep end.

Sorry this is a day late this week - good news is that there are still lots of amazing events to choose from in the next four days!

  

New this week: check out our listing of splash pads in the East Valley, as well as a link to find other splash pads around the Phoenix, Arizona area.  They generally open in May and will remain open until September or October.  They are a great reason to get out of the house and change your space on a day that needs fresh energy ;)

 

Our Fall class is winding up...and we have already said, "Welcome, earthside!" to the first baby from that class.  Fun times!

I thought today would be a great time to write about an idea that is gaining traction here in the West: The Babymoon.

There are actually two contexts for this term: The first one is taken before the baby arrives.  A couple takes time away from their schedules to connect, intentionally make one more set of "before baby was earthside" memories; and maybe spend time talking about their birth, and their hopes and dreams for their family.

When I had my son in 2010, I didn’t know anyone with kids.  All of our family is back in Ohio.  I was on my own.  However, I knew I wanted a homebirth.  I was determined to succeed with breastfeeding, cloth diapering, and babywearing.  While I did succeed with all of these things, that first year was TOUGH.

In the grand scheme of planning our homebirth, there was one thing that Bruss was unsure about: placenta encapsulation.  The idea of consuming a placenta after childbirth was absolutely an eyebrow raiser for me, too, the first time I heard about it. 

After going to birth circle and researching some more, I came around to the idea.  Lots of moms testified that there was a positive effect on their postpartum period, going so far as to call them their “happy pills”.  I had postpartum blues with both Ysabella and Bryan (incidentally, both of their labors were augmented with Pitocin) and if there was a way to avoid that emotional roller coaster, I was willing to try it.