YUCK. It’s the time of winter crud being passed around like crayons at the school table.  Even the little ones are susceptible.  Viruses are everywhere right now, and the warm to cold temperatures outside are not helping.

You just delivered a beautiful, vernix covered little bundle of joy.  Your heart is on cloud 9 and the endorphins are delightful.  The last thing you are thinking about is watching the umbilical cord.  Hopefully, your birth team will already be in practice of letting the cord pulse to completion, but taking the time to watch it happen will help you understand just why it’s so important.

When my first baby was born, I laughed at the idea of ingesting my placenta.  Heck, I didn’t even want to look at the organ after it was delivered!  I had this amazing unmedicated birth center birth, and I didn’t even look at my placenta. What was I thinking? Over the next year, we started falling further down the rabbit hole of all things natural.  Our lifestyle began to change as well as our views and practices.  By the time I was pregnant with baby #2, we were ready for a homebirth, I was teaching childbirth education classes, and I fully understood the power of the placenta.  Not only was I excited to see it, but I wanted it encapsulated. I took my placenta pills for a few weeks and then decided to stash them in the freezer.  I was making plenty of milk, had no signs of depression or baby blues, and was feeling great.  My husband asked me a few months later if I truly wanted to keep those suckers in the freezer long term. I simply laughed at him and swallowed two pills the morning after St. Patrick’s Day (in Savannah, mind you.) and went on my merry way while he suffered an awful hangover. Placenta Pills for the WIN!   He has never questioned  the frozen pills since.