The placenta serves as the lifeline between a pregnant person and their developing baby, delivering oxygen and nutrients while filtering out waste. But beyond its essential role during pregnancy, placental tissue has found real applications in medicine, from wound healing to stem cell research. It has also become the center of a popular but contested trend: eating it after birth. Here’s what the evidence actually supports.
What the Placenta Does During Pregnancy
The placenta is a temporary organ that forms during pregnancy and attaches to the wall of the uterus. It connects to the baby through the umbilical cord and acts as a combined lung, kidney, and hormone factory. Oxygen and nutrients pass from the parent’s blood through the placenta to the fetus, while carbon dioxide and waste products travel back in the other direction for the parent’s body to dispose of.
The placenta is also a powerful hormone producer. It releases human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), the hormone that pregnancy tests detect, which maintains the uterine lining and triggers the production of estrogen and progesterone. It produces human placental lactogen, a hormone that adjusts the pregnant person’s metabolism to increase glucose availability for the growing baby and helps prepare the breasts for milk production. And it churns out progesterone, which supports implantation, relaxes blood vessels, thickens cervical mucus, and contributes to breast development for lactation. These hormones are the reason some people believe consuming the placenta after delivery could offer benefits, a claim worth examining closely.
Placental Tissue in Modern Medicine
Processed placental tissue, particularly the amniotic membrane that forms part of the placental sac, has become a genuinely useful tool in medicine. It is biocompatible, biodegradable, and unlikely to trigger immune rejection, which makes it well suited for applications where the body needs help repairing itself.
Chronic wounds that get stuck in a prolonged inflammatory state are one of the clearest success stories. In these wounds, the body’s own repair signals are overwhelmed by inflammation, and the tissue breaks down faster than it can rebuild. Placental-derived biomaterials work by providing a scaffold that supports new tissue growth while calming inflammation and encouraging cells to migrate into the damaged area. In a multicenter clinical trial of patients with diabetic foot ulcers, 70% of those treated with a placental tissue product achieved complete wound closure within 12 weeks, compared to 48% with standard dressings. Another trial for venous leg ulcers found that 50% of placental-treated wounds healed versus 31% in the control group. These products are available as sheets, injectables, and hydrogels, and they’re used in clinical settings today.
Ophthalmology is another field where amniotic membrane grafts have become routine, particularly for treating corneal damage and surface disorders of the eye.
Stem Cells From Placental Tissue
The placenta is a rich source of stem cells that can develop into multiple types of tissue, and researchers have been exploring their potential for years. In animal studies, cells harvested from the amniotic membrane of the placenta have shown promising results across several conditions. When transplanted into rat models of Parkinson’s disease, these cells produced dopamine (the chemical those patients lack) and slowed nerve cell degeneration. Transplanted into rats after stroke, the cells migrated to the damaged area and improved behavioral function. In monkeys with spinal cord injuries, the cells survived for up to 120 days with no signs of rejection and improved movement.
Other animal research has shown placental stem cells integrating into liver tissue, correcting high blood sugar in diabetic mice, and differentiating into heart-muscle-like cells that survived for at least two months after being implanted into damaged rat hearts. These results are still in the experimental stage, but they highlight why some families choose to bank placental tissue or cord blood at birth. The stem cells collected can potentially be used in treatments that are either available now or may become available as research progresses.
Eating the Placenta: What Proponents Claim
Placentophagy, the practice of consuming one’s own placenta after giving birth, has surged in popularity. It’s typically done by dehydrating the placenta and grinding it into capsules, though some people consume it raw in smoothies or cooked. Proponents claim it can reduce postpartum depression, boost energy, improve milk production, and replenish iron lost during delivery.
Nearly all other mammals eat their placenta after birth, and researchers have proposed a few theories for why: it may reduce scents that attract predators, replenish nutrients lost during delivery, or stimulate maternal bonding through hormonal effects. The earliest scientific study on human placentophagy dates to 1917, which noted increases in protein and lactose in breast milk among women who consumed dried placenta. Since then, advocates have pointed to the hormones retained in placental tissue, particularly progesterone and estrogen, as a mechanism for mood stabilization and milk production.
What the Evidence Actually Shows
When put to rigorous testing, the claimed benefits have not held up. A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study compared women who took encapsulated placenta capsules to those who took encapsulated beef as a placebo. The researchers measured hemoglobin, ferritin, and transferrin (all markers of iron status) at four points from late pregnancy through three weeks postpartum. There were no statistically significant differences between the two groups on any measure.
The placenta capsules did contain considerably more iron than the beef placebo (0.664 mg per gram versus 0.093 mg per gram), but the maximum daily intake provided only 24% of the recommended daily allowance for iron in lactating women. For someone who is genuinely iron deficient after birth, relying on placenta capsules as a primary iron source would be inadequate. Nutritional analysis has confirmed that the human placenta contains meaningful amounts of protein, iron, selenium, and cholesterol, but not in quantities that would be hard to get from ordinary food or a standard supplement.
As for mood and lactation benefits, no controlled human trials have demonstrated that placenta consumption reduces postpartum depression or increases breast milk supply beyond what a placebo achieves. The positive reports are largely anecdotal, and it’s difficult to separate any real effect from the powerful influence of expectation.
Safety Risks of Placenta Consumption
Beyond the lack of proven benefits, there are real safety concerns. No standards exist for processing placenta for consumption. The dehydration process used by most encapsulation services does not reliably kill bacteria. The CDC documented a case in Oregon where a newborn developed a serious Group B Streptococcus (GBS) infection linked to the mother’s consumption of contaminated placenta capsules. The mother had started taking two capsules three times daily beginning three days after birth. Lab cultures of her capsules grew the same GBS bacteria found in her infant. The temperatures used during processing (around 130°F for roughly two hours) were likely insufficient to eliminate the pathogen.
The CDC’s assessment was direct: the placenta encapsulation process does not eradicate infectious pathogens, and placenta capsule ingestion should be avoided. In cases where the parent was colonized with GBS, had an infection of the membranes during labor, or the baby had early-onset GBS disease, consuming contaminated capsules could increase bacterial colonization and raise the infant’s risk of a dangerous late-onset infection.
Placenta Extract in Skincare
Placenta extract has been used in skincare products, particularly in parts of Asia, for decades. Research published in Scientific Reports found that human placental extract activated a broad range of genes involved in skin structure and repair when applied to skin cells in the lab. Specifically, it increased production of type I collagen (the protein that gives skin its firmness), elastin (which provides bounce), and hyaluronan (which holds moisture). These are the same compounds that decline with age, which is why placental extract is marketed as an anti-aging ingredient. The lab evidence is real, though it is worth noting that many compounds boost collagen production in a petri dish, and the leap from lab cells to visible results on human skin is significant.