Honouring the placenta

But let´s start at the beginning...

Your placenta is a unique and temporary organ that connects you to your baby. The function of your placenta is crucial for a successful pregnancy and is formed during the first three months of pregnancy and expelled after your baby is born. The DNA of the placenta is the same as the DNA of your baby and thats why in some cultures it´s seen as the twin of the baby.

Your placenta consists of 2 parts; yours and your baby's part. A significant amount of your baby´s blood flows closely alongside your blood vessels. This allows an exchange of substances and gases. While your blood and that of your baby flows in close proximity within the placenta, your circulatory systems remain separate.

After your fourth month, it grows parallel to the development of your uterus. By week 20, yourplacenta will take on a more mature form, with increased efficiency in meeting the growing demands of your baby. Once completed, your placenta will weigh about 650 grams and have the shape of a disc, about 20 cm in diameter and 3 cm thick.

You are connected to your baby through the umbilical cord, together with the placenta they are your baby´s lifeline during your baby´s time in your womb. The placenta has several functions;

• Provides oxygen and nutrients until shortly after birth through the umbilical cord

• All main pregnancy hormones are produced in, around or with help of the placenta and womb lining

• Carries antibodies from your bloodstream to your baby

• Picks up harmful waste and carbon dioxide from your baby´s blood

Although an amazing organ your placenta cannot filter out everything. Alcohol, medicines, nicotine, other toxins unhealthy food and too much sugar are not filtered out. These substances can have a huge influence on your baby, not just during pregnancy but during the rest of your baby´s life. For example eating loads of sugar during pregnancy can increase the chances on diabetes during the rest of your baby´s life.

What happens when you birth your placenta?

How long does it take to birth your placenta?

When left to nature usually the placenta comes by itself somewhere between 10 and 30 minutes after birth, but it can take longer. While you are waiting for your placenta you can hold your baby, preferably skin to skin, let your baby crawl up to your breast and let your baby latch for the first time by itself. This will all help with producing oxytocin, which in turn will help the placenta to let go of your womb lining and be birthed. All the while your baby can still be attached to the umbilical cord or when the umbilical cord is white it can be clamped and cut if you wish.

Although your body is well designed and normally does not need any active management to birth the placenta. In many midwives practices and hospitals it´s part of the protocol to actively manage the third stage. When you don´t want the injection it´s good to include this in your birth preference sheet. If you want to know why oxytocin is given after birth check the FAQ about oxytocin.

Alternatively, some women choose to have an injection of synthetic oxytocin to encourage the placenta to come out. The exact drug that is used differs and has different effectivity and side effects. If you choose an actively managed third stage it´s advisable to speak about this with your healthcare provider and ask her which drug is normally used and what the effectivity and side effects are. When and if the drug is routinely administered depends on several factors; how your labour was, the preference of the healthcare provider, hospital, clinic or midwives practise protocol, etc. When you don´t want the injection it´s good to include this in your birth plan.

Another option is to have a delayed managed third stage. In this option you wait with the injection until after the umbilical cord is clamped. This way the drugs don´t pass on to your baby. There are different views on how harmful the drugs are for your baby in the amount that is administered. If you consider third stage this is also something to take into account when making your decision.

Most important; the choice is yours! Whether you choose physiological third stage (no injection), Active Management of third stage (immediate injection) or delayed Active Management of third stage (waiting until after cord is clamped to get the injection).

What does delivering your placenta feel like?

To every women it feels different. Some feel again some contractions and feel the urge to push and some don´t feel it or merely feel it as if there is some light bowel movement when the placenta loosens. The birthing of the placenta is described in various ways; much easier then birthing the baby, as a nice warm soft relieve, a warm mushy mass coming out, and probably many more ways to describe it. 

Now finally; what to do with your placenta?

There are many options:

💛 Eat the placenta

You might get the shivers thinking of eating your placenta, but there really are women who do this and claim to benefit from it. The benefits that are claimed are quicker recovery, more energy, and prevention of post-natal depression. Unfortunately we only have the testimonies of the women who did this and there is no evidence to support these claims. The way you can eat it´s to cut it in thin slices and put it in a fruit or veggies shake, raw. There are articles online which explain this in more detail, with recipe.

💙 Make a placenta print art and hang it on your wall

This is what I did myself. The placenta is such a beautiful organ to see, I made into wall art for my living room. The placenta print looks like a tree and I personally see it as the tree of life. You can do it yourself or ask your midwife is she can do it. Is pretty simple. You put the placenta on a big peace of paper with the part that shows you the ¨tree¨, this is where the umbilical cord is connected, make sure there is not too much blood on it because this makes stains and it makes the picture of the tree less clear. Another option is to use paint instead of the blood. You can do it in any colour you like. I used thick aquarelle paper when I did it myself, simply because this is what my midwife used for my oldest daughter and it looks beautiful.

🩵 Make placenta and/or cord art

Sometimes the cord is put in a certain shape (often a heart) and photographed. This can be done with or without your baby still connected to the placenta through the umbilical cord. Sometimes just the cord is photographed in a certain shape.

🤍 Keep baby attached to the placenta until the cord lets go by itself

This is called a lotus birth. This is a new western practice, but there are similar practises known in indigenous cultures. In this practise the bond between your baby and your placenta is being honoured. The placenta is seen as the twin since they share the same DNA and where together during the time in the womb, it has been one unit all that time. The idea is that by cutting the cord the unit is broken in an artificial way and with outside force. When having a lotus birth the baby is given the time to say farewell to the placenta and it´s left to nature when the time has come to let go. In this practice you wait until the cord dries and then after a few days falls off by itself. The parents choosing this type of birth assume that, although there is no blood flow anymore to the baby, there is still a flow of energy from the placenta to the baby.

For some this is not so practical since you then have to cary around baby and placenta all the time, others like it because this way visitors stay at a distance naturally and it keeps mom in bed since its not so easy to walk around with both baby and placenta.

Another options would be the half lotus. This is where you keep the umbilical cord attached to your baby until a few hours after birth. Also with the half lotus the advantage is that the umbilical cord is not pulsating at all anymore and your baby doesn’t have to abruptly say farewell to the placenta. I did this simply because I didn’t want to rush anything, I wanted be sure all the blood went to my daughter and I also found it a beautiful sight to see how baby and placenta are attached.

❤️ Donate to the hospital

Umbilical cord blood is the blood that remains in the umbilical cord and the placenta. Technically it's not cord blood, but the blood of your baby. Thanks to the stem cells in umbilical cord blood, patients with various diseases such as leukaemia, patients with bone marrow abnormalities and patients with compromised immune systems can be helped. The diseased stem cells are then replaced with the stem cells of your baby, that were left behind in placenta and umbilical cord because of the early cord clamping. This blood stem cell transplantation can result in 50% of the cases in healing.

The issue with this is that the cord is clamped before it stopped pulsating. Which means your baby doesn’t get all the blood that t it otherwise would get. This can be a difference of up to 1/3 of the blood it would otherwise get. Consequently this means that your baby gets less of these amazing stem cells, iron and other  nutrients. This is not what I consider a good start for your baby, but of course the choice is yours.

What will you do with your placenta?

Do you have any idea how you will honour your placenta? I would love to hear your ideas and insights! You can share your thoughts below.

Want to create your own positive birthing experience?

Would you like to discover more about creating a positive birthing experience? Then sign up for the 1:1 Introductory Meeting and check for yourself if we can work together!

These pregnancy, birth and postpartum blog stories you might also like:

Want to delve into the material yourself? Good idea! Here are my sources

Dr Rachel Reed, Midwife thinking, on actively managed placental birth

Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2015 Mar 5; 370(1663): 20140066. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2014.0066