People eat the placenta after childbirth primarily because they believe it prevents postpartum depression, restores iron lost during delivery, and boosts energy during the exhausting early weeks of parenthood. In a survey of over 1,000 women who practiced placentophagy, about half cited increased iron stores and prevention of postpartum depression as their top reasons, while 45% pointed to reduced fatigue. The practice has grown substantially in recent years, driven largely by word of mouth and endorsements from midwives, doulas, and celebrities. But the scientific evidence behind these claims remains thin, and the practice carries real risks.
What People Believe It Does
The logic behind eating the placenta sounds intuitive. The organ spends nine months nourishing a fetus, filtering nutrients, and producing hormones. Proponents argue that consuming it after birth returns those nutrients and hormones to the mother at a time when her body is depleted. The most common claimed benefits include improved mood, better milk supply, faster recovery from blood loss, and higher energy levels. Some women who have consumed their placentas do report feeling better in all of these areas.
The problem is that self-reported improvements are difficult to separate from the placebo effect, normal postpartum recovery, or the confidence that comes from feeling like you’re doing something proactive. No large clinical trial has confirmed any of these benefits. A small randomized controlled trial found a modest, dose-specific effect on maternal hormones but no meaningful difference in mood or depression symptoms between women taking placenta capsules and those taking a placebo.
How It’s Prepared
Most women consume the placenta in capsule form rather than eating it raw or cooked as a meal. The standard encapsulation process involves cleaning and slicing the placenta, sometimes steaming it first, then dehydrating it at temperatures between 115°F and 160°F. Once dried, the tissue resembles a dried mushroom. It’s ground into a fine powder and packed into gelatin capsules, typically yielding 115 to 200 pills per placenta. Women then take these daily over two to three weeks postpartum.
A smaller number of women blend raw placenta into smoothies, cook it into dishes, or prepare tinctures. The capsule method dominates because it’s easier to stomach and feels more like taking a supplement than eating an organ.
What’s Actually in Placental Tissue
Lab analysis of raw, unprocessed placenta shows that 100 grams contains about 10.6 grams of protein, 5.94 milligrams of iron, 123 milligrams of calcium, and roughly 52 calories. It also contains small amounts of selenium and vitamin A. These numbers aren’t negligible, but they’re also not remarkable. A serving of red meat or a bowl of iron-fortified cereal delivers comparable iron. And since women typically consume only a few grams of placenta powder per day in capsule form, the actual daily dose of any given nutrient is quite small.
The hormone content is more interesting. Researchers at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas analyzed 28 placentas processed for encapsulation and detected 16 of 17 hormones tested, including progesterone, estradiol, estriol, cortisol, and testosterone. Some estrogens and progestogens were present in concentrations that could conceivably produce physiological effects. Whether swallowing these hormones in capsule form actually raises blood levels enough to influence mood or milk production is a separate question, and one that hasn’t been conclusively answered.
The Heavy Metal Problem
The placenta acts as a filter between a mother’s blood and her baby’s. That filtering function means it accumulates environmental contaminants over nine months. A study of 103 placentas found detectable mercury in 100% of samples, lead in about 82%, cadmium in 45%, and arsenic in roughly 15%. The concentrations varied widely depending on the mother’s diet and environmental exposures.
For the raw, unprocessed tissue analyzed in a separate study, arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury levels were all below 1 microgram per 100 grams, which is quite low. But heavy metal concentrations differ from one placenta to another, and there is no screening process. No one tests a placenta for contaminants before encapsulating it. You’re essentially consuming a biological filter without knowing what it filtered.
A Documented Case of Infant Infection
The most concrete safety concern on record involves a newborn in Oregon who developed Group B Streptococcus (GBS) blood infections twice in 2016. After the infant was treated for the first infection and sent home, the mother began taking placenta capsules. The baby was readmitted five days later with a second GBS infection. Genetic sequencing at the CDC confirmed that the bacterial strains from both infections and from the placenta capsules were identical, with zero genetic differences between them.
The bacteria in the capsules carried virulence factors that help it cross from an infant’s intestine into the bloodstream and potentially into the brain. The CDC’s investigation concluded that the encapsulation process, which uses temperatures between 115°F and 160°F, does not reliably kill dangerous bacteria. For comparison, eliminating Salmonella requires sustained heating at 130°F for over two hours. In this case, the mother’s increased bacterial colonization from the capsules likely reexposed her infant through close contact and breastfeeding.
The CDC’s conclusion was blunt: the placenta encapsulation process does not eradicate infectious pathogens, and capsule ingestion should be avoided. No federal or state standards exist for processing placenta for human consumption, meaning there are no required temperatures, no testing protocols, and no oversight of the individuals preparing capsules.
Why People Do It Anyway
Given the weak evidence and real risks, the persistence of the practice comes down to a few factors. Postpartum recovery is genuinely difficult, and many women feel underserved by conventional postpartum care, which often amounts to a single doctor visit six weeks after delivery. Placentophagy offers a sense of agency during a vulnerable time. It fits naturally into a broader philosophy of natural childbirth and holistic wellness that many mothers find empowering.
Social reinforcement plays a significant role. Women who try it and feel good afterward become vocal advocates, and their testimonials carry enormous weight in parenting communities and on social media. The fact that nearly all land mammals eat their placentas after birth is frequently cited as evidence that it must serve a biological purpose, though researchers point out that animal placentophagy likely evolved to avoid attracting predators and to recoup calories after delivery in the wild, neither of which applies to humans.
There’s also no easy way to disentangle the placebo effect from genuine benefit in everyday life. A new mother who takes placenta capsules and feels more energetic has no reason to doubt the capsules helped. Without a controlled comparison, the experience feels like proof. That’s a perfectly human response, but it’s not the same as evidence that the practice works.