# Placenta Pizza in the News! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [January 13, 2008, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/placenta-pizza-in-the-news/433372 "2008-01-13T08:14:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2008, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/placenta-pizza-in-the-news/433372/1 "2008-01-13T08:14:42Z")
It seems like [Cecil’s mockery of the practice](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_104.html), \*hasn’t \*[stamped the idea out. > [@](#): > > When she became pregnant with her second child, she looked for ways to stave off those sad feelings — and ended up doing something surprising. She ingested her placenta. > > Placentophagy, as it’s called, grabbed headlines this summer after a judge ordered a Las Vegas hospital to give a new mom her uterine lining, which the woman planned to dry, grind up and ingest. She, like Shalev, had heard that ingesting the placenta was a natural way to ward off the baby blues — those overwhelmed, weepy feelings that 80 percent of moms develop after giving birth. > > New moms who swear by the benefits of consuming their placenta point out that it’s a common practice among mammals — and after all, women are mammals, too. But no studies have examined health benefits of human placentophagy, says Dr. Diana Dell, an assistant professor in ob-gyn and psychology at Duke University. ]([http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22087790/](http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22087790/)):eek: ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2008, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/placenta-pizza-in-the-news/433372/2 "2008-01-14T04:18:25Z")
While looking for something else, I stumbled across a web page about the Navajo turtle spirit, and its link to the placenta. When a child is born, the placenta is dried and placed inside a…pouch, or something honoring the turtle spirit. The turtle spirit is linked to safety and strength. You want more? Look it up yourself. You’ll remember better than I did, maybe. ---
**Author:** ![vison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/e47774/32.png) [@vison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vison)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2008, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/placenta-pizza-in-the-news/433372/3 "2008-01-14T04:32:03Z")
Other mammals do certainly eat the placenta. It’s weird to see a cow or ewe doing it. Frankly? Kinda gross. There are several reasons for it, although I suppose no animal other than a human could explain it for sure. One reason given is that the placenta will attract predators, so the mother eats it. Another is that it triggers milk production, containing a hormone that aids with that. Another reason is to keep the nest clean, but cows and ewes, etc., don’t have “nests” like wolves or cats. There was a move afoot, I vaguely recall, during the counter-culture era, fora woman to eat the placenta because it was “natural”. I don’t know if it was ever a common practice in any human culture, but the proper handling of the placenta was important in many. Do the other primates eat the placenta? ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2008, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/placenta-pizza-in-the-news/433372/4 "2008-01-14T14:41:23Z")
I remember an early SNL fake ad for “Placenta Helper.” Ewwwwwww.