Eating your own placenta: CDC issues warning against this latest craze!

Courtesy: YouTube. 

Center for Disease Control(CDC) issued a warning in the weekly Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) against consumption of placenta pills, after an Oregon infant recurrent illness was tied to maternal consumption of placenta pills.

Consumption of placenta in the form of pills or smoothies is called as Placentophagy and has become a recent trend, after it was touted by many celebrities to help mothers overcome postpartum depression, increase milk production and speeds up uterus involution, boosts energy, promotes skin elasticity, enhances maternal bonding and replenishes iron in the body.

In the Oregon case, after an uneventful labor and delivery in September 2016, the infant developed signs of respiratory distress and was admitted to NICU. Samples for Blood and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) were obtained; presuming sepsis. CSF was negative but the blood tested positive for penicillin-sensitive, clindamycin-intermediate group B Streptococcus agalactiae (GBS). The infant made a full recovery after 11 days of treatment with ampicillin (200 mg/kg/day).

The infant was readmitted after 5 days to a second hospital and tested positive for late-onset group B Streptococcus agalactiae (GBS) bacteremia.

Digging deeper to unravel the mystery of infant’s recurrent infection, the doctors discovered that from the third postpartum day, the infant’s mother was consuming two capsules of her dehydrated placenta three times a day.

A physician at the birth hospital notified the authorities at the second hospital that the mother has requested a release of the placenta after delivery. The mother has already enlisted with a company that has agreed to turn the placenta into gelatin capsules after processing it. The company cleans, slices and dehydrates placentas at 115°F–160°F (46°C–71°C). The dried and powdered placenta is then filled into about 115 to 200 gel capsules.

The placenta capsules

One such company is placentapower which provides the entire package of collecting your placenta from place of labor to delivering the processed capsules to your doorstep for $250. Other services provided by the company includes placenta tincture, salve and prints. 

The three GBS isolates (one from each blood infection, and one from the placenta capsules) were indistinguishable by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. Consumption of contaminated placenta capsules might have elevated maternal GBS intestinal and skin colonization, facilitating transfer to the infant.

No scientific evidence supports the benefits of consuming the afterbirth. Dr. Crystal Clark, assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a psychiatrist specializing in reproduction-related mood disorders at Northwestern’s Asher Center for the Study and Treatment of Depressive Disorders conducted a review of 10 current published research studies and found that no scientific evidence supports the benefits of consuming the afterbirth.

The study was published June 4 in Archives of Women's Mental Health.

A 2016 study from the University of Nevada Las Vegas, published in Journal of Midwifery and Women’s Health concluded, “ Encapsulated placenta supplementation neither significantly improves nor impairs postpartum maternal iron status for women consuming the RDA of dietary iron during pregnancy and lactation.”

The CDC MMWR reports warning says, “The placenta encapsulation process does not per se eradicate infectious pathogens; thus, placenta capsule ingestion should be avoided. In cases of maternal GBS colonization, chorioamnionitis, or early-onset neonatal GBS infection, ingestion of capsules containing contaminated placenta could heighten maternal colonization, thereby increasing an infant’s risk for late-onset neonatal GBS infection. Clinicians should inquire about a history of placenta ingestion in cases of late-onset GBS infection and educate mothers interested in placenta encapsulation about the potential risks.”

Ground placenta is used in traditional Chinese medicine since years. In North America, the first documented evidence of Placentophagy is around 1970s. Midwives and birthing doulas also prepare the capsules of placenta.

The full text of MMWR can be accessed here.