Placenta Encapsulation - Be Empowered Birth Series

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Placenta Encapsulation

Be Empowered Birth Series

What is Placenta Encapsulation?

Placenta encapsulation is the process of taking the organ that sustained and nourished your baby through pregnancy and putting it into a capsule to support a mother in her postpartum period. Specifically, the placenta is examined, prepared, steamed, and dehydrated before it is encapsulated. There are various forms of processing the placenta into capsules, but we practice with the Traditional Chinese Method.

The Traditional Chinese Method (TCM) is the oldest and most commonly used method for placenta encapsulation. Traditional Chinese Method comes from the Chinese philosophy of ying/yang, with yang focused on bringing warmth to provide healing through the postpartum period by steaming and dehydrating the placenta. During the steaming process, the placenta is steamed most commonly with lemon and ginger to add to the warming of the capsules.

After the placenta is steamed it is sliced to go into the dehydrator. The total process varies on length based on the size of the placenta, with the longest portion of the process being the dehydrating portion, which takes anywhere from about 12-24 hours. When the dehydrating process is complete, the placenta is then finely blended and encapsulated into our vegetable based capsules, put into a sterile jar, and delivered to you for you to begin using.

What are the benefits of Placenta Encapsulation?

The benefits of Placenta Encapsulation ranges from supporting a new mother with healing to aiding in hormonal balance postpartum and much more! In fact, many women report that their placenta capsules have helped them with increased milk supply, decreased feelings of imbalance, improved energy, and reduced fatigue to name a few. There are several traces of hormones that have been identified in the placenta capsules including:

  • Cortisone: combats stress and is energy boosting.

  • Gamma Globulin: immunity booster.

  • Gonadotropin: the precursor to estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone.

  • Hemoglobin: replenishes iron.

  • Interferon: stimulates the immune system.

  • Oxytocin: produced during breastfeeding to facilitate bonding of mother and infant.

  • Prolactin: promotes lactation.

  • Prostaglandins: anti-inflammatory.

  • TSH (Thyroid Stimulating Hormone): boosts energy and helps with recovery from stress.

  • Urokinase inhibiting factor and factor XIII: stops bleeding and enhances wound healing.

Who should encapsulate their placenta?

Placenta encapsulation is typically an option for everyone and  can be added to any service to enhance your postpartum period! The rare times we are unable to process the placenta into capsules include if there was a uterine infection, cancer of the placenta, and heavy smoking or drug use in pregnancy.

Why hire Little Lilacs for placenta encapsulation?

When you hire Little Lilacs Birth Services to encapsulate your placenta, we do a thorough process of answering your questions and collecting information important to the encapsulation process. Upon pick up of your placenta we ensure the placenta has been handled according to contract requirements and no infection was present during labor.

Our services are focused on professionalism and hold a high standard of care for your placenta. This includes providing a clean, sanitized and safe place for process the placenta encapsulation process. We are proud to offer an affordable rate for placenta encapsulation, tincture and balm options!