In the months following the birth of my first baby I struggled with a rich milk supply and found that every evening after 6 weeks post-birth I was ‘empty’.  DD used to cry through the night because of hunger when I simply didn’t have the milk to give her.  I was heartbroken and felt inadequate as a breastfeeding mother.  I tried all sorts of herbal tinctures, supplements from Fenugreek to Brewers Yeast, I took Bach’s flower remedies and homeopathic remedies, nothing worked.  I weaned DD onto solids at 4.5 months because she wouldn’t sleep at night and I was exhausted.  I continued to breastfeed until for another 4 months before I called it quits.  I was heartbroken as I had set my mind on feeding for 1-2 years! 

When I found out I was pregnant with baby number 2, I knew I had to do something different so ensure my milk supply was rich for my newborn.  Finding loads of information on the internet, I decided the most beneficial way to guarantee a rich milk supply was to eat my placenta - yes, I thought it was disgusting at first, but making it into capsules made it all a lot less ‘gross’. 

After a beautiful 4 hour home water birth, my mother made a raw placenta smoothie with berry fruits and juice and a small piece of the raw placenta.  I couldn’t taste it at all, just tasted like a normal fruit smoothie.  Surprisingly, my milk ‘came in’ in just 12 hours after birth!  I was astonished.  Not only that, my bleeding stopped almost immediately, I only bled slightly for 7 days after birth.  I felt great with the smoothies and froze the rest of the placenta.  About 2 weeks after birth using a Traditional Chinese Medicine method I made 150 placenta capsules in my kitchen.  My capsules gave my milk supply a real boost about an hour after taking them, it was that noticable! 

I found the whole experience so much more enjoyable.  My milk supply was rich and full, I never had any problems with breastfeeding.  In fact, I had so much milk I decided to donate my breastmilk to my local hospital for sick babies in the Neonatal ward. 

I still can’t belive the key to my happy post-birth experience was my placenta, I just had to make use of it and throw it away! 

You can read more about your Placenta at http://www.placentanetwork.com/placenta.asp Placenta Network Website

Interesting website - thank you! I’m planning to eat mine. When my pet rat had babies she ate all the afterbirth… the nest and babies were immaculate afterwards, nothing wasted at all and she didn’t need to eat anything else for quite some time. As a biologist, I always thought this was another amazing example of the resourcefulness of nature - I too hope to follow what nature had intended for us mammals! The placenta is also a great source of zinc, which can be low in post partum mothers and is linked with PND, another good reason not to waste such a useful resource!

Michelle

I was planning on having a chow down too, but after 20 years of being veggie I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I really admire women who do and your story is amazing; nature knows best eh? Interesting that bunnies eat theirs seeing as they are herbivores.

our placenta was frozen for a year and buried under a flowering cherry tree - which flowers on DD’s birthday. I wish I’d made capsules for her, but didn’t know you could do it yourself; I thought you had to send it away. I think they would have been her perfect medicine ....

Great thread - thanks so much and I’m so thrilled for your own success with breastfeeding

Fascinating insight - thanks for posting.  Not sure I will dare to mention this in the breastfeeding classes I teach though…........!

Shame I’m done having babies :( there are so many things I’ve read about on here I’d like to have incorporate into the process.  Hope you inspire others who are having more x

Fascinating! I’ve heard of many benefits of eating the placenta but never heard about it helping breastfeeding before. Thanks!

Update : My amazing husband prepared and served up my placenta as three raw placenta smoothies on the three days after G’s birth and with the rest, made the most delicious pate! He ate some too I lost a fair amount of blood but can’t take iron supplements so i was really grateful to have access to such a good source of iron! I also had relatively little lochia which my midwife thinks may be due to eating the placenta (because of all the hormones it contains).

I highly recommend it!

Michelle x