# Placenta ownership **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 11, 2002, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/placenta-ownership/118413 "2002-07-11T13:28:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Catto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/278dde/32.png) [@Catto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catto)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2002, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/placenta-ownership/118413/1 "2002-07-11T13:28:30Z")
I will soon be a Mother again and wish to take my placenta home after the birth, My hospital in NYC have refused this (they say it is NY state law that no ‘blood product’ may leave hospital premises). Does anyone know what rights I may have? Texas & Oregon make no big deal about it and you can take your placenta home there. Also the whole of the UK are fine about it too. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2002, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/placenta-ownership/118413/2 "2002-07-11T13:46:12Z")
If you make stew there’ll be enough for everybody! You & the hospital can share! 😃 check the link! [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3\_104.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_104.html) ---
**Author:** ![hedra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/779978/32.png) [@hedra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hedra)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2002, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/placenta-ownership/118413/3 "2002-07-11T14:05:37Z")
If you have an organ removed, you can’t take that home, either. It is health regs, not ownership. Bring your own bag(s) or containers, and ask the nurses (you can ask one in advance, too - just to see if it ever happens). It isn’t allowed at the hospitals I gave birth in, either, but nurses at both let me take it each time anyway, so long as I didn’t get caught with it (like someone was looking?). If they argue, mention that it is for religious reasons. Most will give in on that point (say, you plan to plant it for spiritual reasons…). ---
**Author:** ![zuma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9c0ed/32.png) [@zuma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zuma)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2002, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/placenta-ownership/118413/4 "2002-07-11T14:28:22Z")
This is a troll, right? right? ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2002, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/placenta-ownership/118413/5 "2002-07-11T14:33:50Z")
You’d think squatter’s rights would apply. ---
**Author:** ![mazzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eada6e/32.png) [@mazzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mazzer)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2002, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/placenta-ownership/118413/6 "2002-07-11T15:24:55Z")
Besides making a stew, what else can you do with one’s placenta (the baby’s? or the mother’s? whose is it?)? Someone mentioned planting it, along with some seeds I assume, or can one grow babies this way? Do you put it in the freezer like a wedding cake? What what what? ---
**Author:** ![hedra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/779978/32.png) [@hedra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hedra)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2002, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/placenta-ownership/118413/7 "2002-07-11T15:40:17Z")
😃 chriszarate - the placenta is technically the baby’s. It is not unusual for people to plant it under a rose bush or tree, as a spiritual exercise/practice or part of another formal or informal ceremony. We planted my first son’s under a tree that he picked (he was born in November, so not planting season - it stayed in the freezer until the ground thawed…). So my son was old enough at that point to … well, sorta pick out a tree (I walked around in the nursery until he lunged for a tree, showed him a few others, he kept lunging for the same one, so that’s the one we picked - a white dogwood, BTW). The basis of the idea is that the placenta’s only function is to grow something - at least while it is living tissue. Once it is technically ‘dead’ it is nice (congruent, spiritually) to have it help grow something else. Other people use this to symbolize the child’s connection to the earth in a spiritual sense, etc. best plan is to make sure the placenta isn’t in direct contact with the plant roots, though - they are fairly substantial as fertilizing material, and it takes a while for them to break down. My second son’s is still in the freezer - we’ll plant later in the year, after the drought eases up. Maybe a lilac this time? We’ll see. used to have medicinal uses, too. And yes, IIRC in some places it was assumed that it would be the mother’s first meal postpartum (lots of iron and protien… IMHO truly icky concept, but not really bad for you). ---
**Author:** ![mazzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eada6e/32.png) [@mazzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mazzer)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2002, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/placenta-ownership/118413/8 "2002-07-11T15:48:38Z")
That is pretty cool I must say. Having a tree that was nourished by your birthshroud. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2002, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/placenta-ownership/118413/9 "2002-07-11T17:22:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*\*zuma \*\*: This is a troll, right? right? This is a self-referential post, right? Right?