# Could the placenta continue to function? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 7, 2015, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-the-placenta-continue-to-function/736909 "2015-11-07T16:34:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2015, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-the-placenta-continue-to-function/736909/61 "2015-11-12T00:35:25Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > Even so, their time is ephemeral; they have their season, then they detach and wither. A time to rend, a time to sew A time for love, a time for hate A time for placentas, I swear it’s not too late! ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2015, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-the-placenta-continue-to-function/736909/62 "2015-11-12T00:42:58Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > … Even so, their time is ephemeral; they have their season, then they detach and wither. … Like butterflies and snowflakes. ---
**Author:** ![Oly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oly/32/8255_2.png) [@Oly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oly)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2015, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-the-placenta-continue-to-function/736909/63 "2015-11-12T01:26:25Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > A time to rend, a time to sew > A time for love, a time for hate > A time for placentas, I swear it’s not too late! Now that was absolutely sycytiotrophoblastic fantastic!! ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2015, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-the-placenta-continue-to-function/736909/64 "2015-11-12T02:17:04Z")
- Imagining waiting for the bus with butterfly-winged eyebrows while checking if my mailbox isn’t getting cold \* ---
**Author:** ![Nullpersona](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nullpersona](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nullpersona)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2015, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-the-placenta-continue-to-function/736909/65 "2015-11-12T09:25:57Z")
At this point, the question has been answered. Yes. The placenta may continue to function, as long as the relationship with the womb remains intact. If I have more questions, I may ask them. Thanks for your help. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2015, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-the-placenta-continue-to-function/736909/66 "2015-11-12T12:05:49Z")
I had a nightmare because of this thread ☹ You know those from which you wake up suddenly because it’s just so bad? Identical twins, condemned to go through life as siamese because they had to carry their shared placenta around in an aquarium. My brain had even added little crabs and goldfishes and those other little brown ones with the bright blue spot. It was a bitch too, stupid aquarium kept sloshing water all over the place. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2015, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-the-placenta-continue-to-function/736909/67 "2015-11-12T13:33:36Z")
> [@Nullpersona](#): > > At this point, the question has been answered. > > Yes. > > The placenta may continue to function, as long as the relationship with the womb remains intact. > > If I have more questions, I may ask them. > > Thanks for your help. No. That’s not the correct answer. How did you get that answer from this thread? ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2015, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-the-placenta-continue-to-function/736909/68 "2015-11-12T13:37:13Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > How did you get that answer from this thread? Magical thinking. ---
**Author:** ![Chief\_Pedant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@Chief\_Pedant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chief_Pedant)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2015, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-the-placenta-continue-to-function/736909/69 "2015-11-12T13:52:25Z")
**OP:** \* “Could a placenta continue to function in a proper environment, if not amputated from the infant?”\* > [@Nullpersona](#): > > At this point, the question has been answered. > > Yes. > > The placenta may continue to function, as long as the relationship with the womb remains intact. > > If I have more questions, I may ask them. > > Thanks for your help. Is your conclusion, then, that the infant and placenta, along with the uterus, all get placed into a physiologic bath and survive as a unit? Because I think you now need to add Mommy onto the uterus to keep it alive so that the placenta’s “relationship with the womb remains intact.” As far as your personal attachment 🙂 to the placenta (which I have inferred from your tone here) I found a ray of good news for you. [This guy](http://fn.bmj.com/content/77/3/F171.full) thinks that, as a fetal organ, placental senescence is overrated and incorrectly assumed. So find a fresh placenta, attached to the baby and the Mom-cum-uterus, and you got yerself an unamputated placenta that should continue to function in that proper environment, as long as you can keep the triad intact! (Call me naive, but this is starting to sound like a reg’lar pregnancy.) ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2015, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-the-placenta-continue-to-function/736909/70 "2015-11-12T14:02:30Z")
Well, the placenta can continue to function for a week or four after the baby’s due date, if conditions are good. My brother was born 4 weeks late. (6 weeks late, based on the official due date, but he was conceived late in my mother’s cycle.) I think my mother had been treated with some drug that had the then-poorly-understood side effect of delaying labor. That was against medical recommendations even back then, but she had had bad experiences with doctors when her first child was born, and refused to allow the doctors to induce labor or pull the kid out. She stood on her legal right to refuse treatment. Anyhow, he was fine, so I believe there has been at least one case of a placenta living 4 weeks past “norm”. And I think it’s fairly common for the placenta to keep functioning for 2 weeks past the due date. I doubt a placenta can live much beyond that, though. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2015, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-the-placenta-continue-to-function/736909/71 "2015-11-12T14:12:00Z")
Hmm, I just had a thought, though. I grow garlic. And I usually cut off the flowering shoot, to encourage the plant to put all its energy into growing big bulbs. But none of us actually likes garlic scapes. (That’s the food-name for the flowering shoot. Or maybe just the name. Anyway…) So they sit in the fridge. One year, as I was getting ready to harvest my garlic bulbs, after the leaves had died back for the season, I noticed the garlic scapes were still in the fridge, and still looked green and healthy. Obviously, if they had done their thing, and produced flowers and seeds, the scapes would have died, too. But when they were cut off from their normal biological function, they were able to “live” for months past their “due date”. It’s possible there’s some weird trick you can play on the placenta to keep it from dying at its normal time, too. I can’t imagine why anyone would want to do that. But I wouldn’t assume it’s impossible if it hasn’t been tried. Also, while humans don’t eat placentas, we do use them in the pharmaceutical and cosmetics industry. Personally, that seems like a good thing, but apparently the op has other thoughts. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2015, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-the-placenta-continue-to-function/736909/72 "2015-11-12T14:15:32Z")
> [@Chief\_Pedant](#): > > …[This guy](http://fn.bmj.com/content/77/3/F171.full) thinks that, as a fetal organ, placental senescence is overrated and incorrectly assumed… I must say, although IANAperson involved in the life sciences, the following sentence in the abstract caught my eye: “This belief is based on the apparent convergence of clinical, structural, and functional data, all of which have been taken, rather uncritically, as supporting this concept of the placenta as an aging organ.” Except for that convergence. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2015, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-the-placenta-continue-to-function/736909/73 "2015-11-12T14:18:02Z")
I remember hearing about underwater births, where the baby is born underwater, allowed some time in the warm water ‘bath’ and is still using the umbilical cord for respiration till the infant is removed from the tub and into the air. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2015, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-the-placenta-continue-to-function/736909/74 "2015-11-12T14:33:04Z")
> [@kanicbird](#): > > I remember hearing about underwater births, where the baby is born underwater, allowed some time in the warm water ‘bath’ and is still using the umbilical cord for respiration till the infant is removed from the tub and into the air. The baby will continue to get oxygen, this is true. But even a waterbirth promoting midwife will tell you to get the baby up to the surface as soon as possible. Even though they’re getting oxygen through the umbilical cord (until the placenta detaches), their mouths and noses work just fine, and getting water into the lungs is still dangerous. That will prevent oxygenation across the lung membranes when the placenta does detach in a few minutes and the baby needs her lungs to work. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2015, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-the-placenta-continue-to-function/736909/75 "2015-11-12T16:20:22Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > It’s possible there’s some weird trick you can play on the placenta Sounds like classic clickbait. “OB-GYNs are worried that women will use this weird trick to save their placentas!” ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2015, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-the-placenta-continue-to-function/736909/76 "2015-11-12T20:04:56Z")
The placenta will never winnta, but at least it beats shownta. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2015, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-the-placenta-continue-to-function/736909/77 "2015-11-12T20:50:38Z")
In the year 2525 Your bloody placenta will be alive Not so true for the baby inside No one will know just when it di iii ed. ---
**Author:** ![Emiliana](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f0a364/32.png) [@Emiliana](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emiliana)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2015, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-the-placenta-continue-to-function/736909/78 "2015-11-12T22:31:27Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Sounds like classic clickbait. > > “OB-GYNs are worried that women will use this weird trick to save their placentas!” Alternatively: She wanted to keep her placenta. And what happened next will amaze and astound you! ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2015, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-the-placenta-continue-to-function/736909/79 "2015-11-12T23:52:06Z")
“29 uses for celebrity placenta! #4 will astound you!” ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2015, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-the-placenta-continue-to-function/736909/80 "2015-11-13T01:26:02Z")
I’m not sure if this supports or opposes OP: [![](https://cinemafanatic.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/the_brain_the_wouldnt_die.jpg) ](https://cinemafanatic.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/the_brain_the_wouldnt_die.jpg) The full movie is here: [- YouTube](http://youtu.be/xUrigGRMUho), although the version shown in MST3K is perhaps more enjoyable: [MST3k - 513 - The Brain that Wouldn't Die - YouTube](http://youtu.be/I71OlRUDCQQ) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-the-placenta-continue-to-function/736909.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-the-placenta-continue-to-function/736909.md?page=5)