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Saturday 14 January 2017

The Placenta Myth: Father Makes a Pizza Out Of Newborn’s Placenta

Tom Maddock is a new dad from Middlewich, England, who made a blended drink out of their first daughter’s placenta. When his wife had a second child, he decided to be more creative; this time, he chopped the placenta into pieces, sautéed it in garlic and onions and added it to the pizza with peppers, tomato puree and mushrooms.
As reported by the daily mail , the pizza was served at a dinner party with friends and family to celebrate the baby’s birth. They said it tasted like liver and was very tasty. Eeewwww!

He also made a strawberry cocktail drink by adding the blended placenta and topped it with sugar in a glass cup to serve along with the pizza.

The placenta is an organ that develops in the uterus during pregnancy to nourish the fetus with oxygen and other nutrients the baby needs throughout the duration of pregnancy, usually weighing about one sixth of the baby’s weight at full term. Though, these days, hospitals just dispose of the placenta with other medical waste but because the placenta is a life giving organ, different families from different cultures have various beliefs and uses of the baby’s placenta.

In the western part of Nigeria for instance, the placenta is highly revered and is referred to as the ‘twin’ of the child. It is believed that the placenta has a special connection to the child, so it is not thrown away carelessly but disposed of by burying it in the ground. There’s a myth that a child whose placenta is eaten by a dog or any animal will end up having manic depression or grow up to be a promiscuous person. It is also the prayer of every household that after the initial separation at delivery, a child should never come in contact with its placenta again in his lifetime as this may bring bad luck to the child. That’s what my grandma told my mama and that’s what my mama told me.

Whereas it is the tradition of some other cultures around the world to bury the placenta in a significant place (for example, under a tree) as they believe a child will stay safe as long as the child stays near where their placenta is buried or will always come back home no matter where he/she travels to. Some bury a significant item with the placenta to determine the child’s profession in future such as a pen to encourage the child becomes a writer or a farming equipment to ensure the child becomes a farmer.

I discovered from my research on this post that eating placenta is an old tradition. Celebrities like American actress, January Jones and the Kardashians are known to have eaten their placenta after delivery. Placenta consumption called 'Placentophagy’ has long been practiced by various tribes. The placenta is cooked and added to a new mother’s food and is believed to ease after - birth pains, reduce postpartum depression and increase milk production. Some people dry and encapsulate it for mothers who may not tolerate eating it in their food.

Would you eat placenta if it provides health benefits as claimed? Perhaps you could blend it with fruits to make a smoothie? What’s the belief surrounding a baby’s placenta where you come from?