The placenta serves as the organ facilitating material exchange between the mother and fetus. It is a composite structure connecting the embryo to maternal tissues, composed of the amnion, chorionic villi, and decidua basalis. The placenta is also known as the afterbirth, fetal membrane, or placental membrane.
Is the placenta nutritious, and how should it be handled? (Public Health Network)
Regarding placenta disposal, some mothers take it home, while others leave it at the hospital, its fate unknown...
I. How Placentas Are Typically Handled
Option 1: Left at the Hospital
Fewer placentas are discarded at hospitals now. Mr. Zhao, a resident, is one such case—he never considered taking it home. "Just leave it with the hospital. Otherwise, I'd have to handle a bloody mess myself, and I wouldn't even know how. As for nutritional value, that's controversial anyway—better to skip it."
Ms. Li, who just gave birth, also left hers at the hospital: "I don't know how they handle it, but I wouldn't eat it at home anyway. It feels weird."
Option 2: Taking it home to make dumplings or soup
What happens to placentas taken home?Our investigation found two main methods: wrapping it into dumplings or simmering it in soup. Mothers avoid frying or baking it, fearing the nutrients might be lost.
Xiao Rong, a mother still hospitalized at Qingdao Medical University Affiliated Hospital, smiled as she said, "I kept my placenta myself. I'll make it into soup for nourishment later. I heard it's like a traditional Chinese medicine, said to boost immunity. Eating it probably won't do any harm."
Another resident, Mr. Shen, shared: "Before the baby was born, relatives had already made arrangements to get some of the placenta. It's considered valuable. Half went to them, and my mother simmered the other half into soup. I didn't take a single bite—the taste was just too strange, hard to describe as fishy or greasy. My wife and the elders in the family ate it."
Third method: Burying it underground and planting a tree on top
Beyond consumption or disposal, placenta handling varies widely. During interviews, Deputy Director Liu from Qingdao Eighth People's Hospital's Obstetrics Department mentioned that in some regions, local customs require mothers to take the placenta home after delivery, bury it in a designated spot, and then plant a tree over it.
Some mothers, however, remain unsure how to handle it. Ms. Chang from Licang District shared with the reporter: "The placenta is flesh from my own body—I couldn’t possibly leave it at the hospital. But bringing it home, I had no idea what to do with it. My child is already several months old, yet the placenta still sits frozen in the refrigerator."
Ms. Chang mentioned her mother-in-law has repeatedly urged her to eat it, but she feels deeply uncomfortable with the idea—just looking at it makes her queasy, let alone consuming it. Yet simply discarding it feels wrong. Now stored in the freezer, the placenta has become something of a hot potato.
II. How Foreigners Handle Placenta
1. American Mothers Trend Toward Eating Their Own Placenta, Placenta Recipes Gain Popularity
According to foreign media reports, some American mothers have begun consuming their own placenta postpartum for health benefits. They believe eating their placenta can boost vitality, promote nutrient-rich breast milk production, and prevent postpartum depression.
Placenta consumption methods include liquids, solids, or processed supplements. It's understood that during the 40-week gestation period, the fetus receives nutrients, oxygen, and hormones from the placenta via the umbilical cord. The placenta features a rich network of blood vessels and is abundant in iron.
Sixty-five-year-old midwife Booker offers placenta processing services to mothers for $270. The process involves washing the placenta, draining its blood, steaming it, and then drying it overnight in a dehydrator. The dried placenta is then chopped, ground into powder, and encapsulated.
Currently, no scientific studies exist on placenta consumption, yet the American trend has spread to cookbooks and online blogs where mothers share "placenta recipes," including novel creations like "placenta truffle chocolate," "placenta tacos," and "placenta lasagna."
2. British Man Bakes Wife's Placenta into Flatbread, Claims It Tastes Like Beef
According to The Guardian, British journalist Nicholas Baines announced his intention to eat the placenta before his wife gave birth. True to his word, after the successful delivery, he consumed his wife's placenta in two forms: a milkshake and baked flatbread.Baines blended part of the placenta with bananas and milk into a light brown banana placenta milkshake. He then added toppings to another portion and baked it into a Mexican-style taco. After preparing these two bold dishes, he consumed every last bit.
After tasting these unusual dishes, Baines described the banana placenta milkshake as having a strong, bloody taste that wasn't pleasant. While the texture resembled a regular banana milkshake, the smell was identical to what he encountered in the delivery room.Baines added that the placenta tacos tasted much better. The baked placenta resembled beef in flavor and had a substantial, meaty texture. 3. British Woman Creates Marble-Effect Photo Frames from Placenta While Americans consume placentas, a British woman has devised a novel commemorative method: transforming placentas into photo frames.
British woman Cotton discovered a method to process placentas. After rinsing and drying the placenta, she ground it into small fragments. These were then mixed with transparent casting resin and poured into molds to create marble-effect picture frames.
III. Hospitals in China Selling Placenta Soup
As early as 2004, reports emerged that in Guangzhou, placentas from many hospitalized mothers were being consumed by citizens as an "exotic" nutritional meal.
In 2004, at a hospital in Liwan District, Guangzhou, a reporter pretending to browse the menu in the 4th-floor cafeteria discovered a dish named "Chinese Yam Placenta Soup." When the reporter expressed interest in trying it, the cafeteria chef promptly served a sample.When the reporter requested to take a placenta home to prepare soup, the chef retrieved a palm-sized placenta from the refrigerator, stating, "This placenta was tested on the second floor of the hospital. Healthy placentas aren't readily available elsewhere."
When the reporter interviewed the hospital's vice president, he stated that the hospital had been selling placenta soup for many years, keeping it low-key with few aware of it. Most buyers were longtime neighbors.
IV. Can Placenta Truly Nourish the Body?
1. Placenta Properties: Warm in nature; indiscriminate consumption may cause internal heat.
"Ziheche (processed human placenta) is a traditional Chinese medicinal ingredient documented in successive editions of the Chinese Pharmacopoeia. From a TCM perspective, human placenta does possess certain properties to warm the kidneys, replenish essence, boost qi, and nourish blood. It is primarily used for conditions like debility and emaciation, impotence and seminal emission, infertility and insufficient lactation, chronic cough and wheezing due to deficiency, bone steaming and consumptive cough, sallow complexion, poor appetite, and shortness of breath."For patients with conditions such as bronchial asthma, chronic bronchitis, pulmonary tuberculosis, susceptibility to colds, spontaneous sweating (indicating lung-kidney deficiency), or postpartum lactation insufficiency, childhood developmental delays, and post-illness debility (indicating qi and blood deficiency), consuming placenta from healthy mothers may offer some auxiliary therapeutic benefits or enhance disease resistance.
However, human placenta possesses warming properties. Indiscriminate consumption may induce internal heat, and stewing it with ingredients like goji berries, red dates, or longan flesh further intensifies its heating effects.Placenta consumption must be guided by a physician's diagnosis, with particular caution for those with yin deficiency and excessive heat. Individuals with active pathogens like colds, real fire, or damp-heat obstructing the spleen may experience worsened internal heat from improperly consuming fresh or processed placenta. This can lead to dry mouth and throat, abdominal distension, poor appetite, and exacerbate stagnant pathogens, resulting in more harm than good.
2. Placental Nutrition: Active Components Primarily Proteins, Ineffective When Taken Orally
From a modern medical perspective, the placenta contains various antibodies, antitoxins, interferons, hormones, and enzymes. These components may offer benefits for individuals with immune deficiencies or certain diseases, as well as for children with developmental issues or allergic constitutions.However, the active components in placenta are predominantly protein-based substances. They must be formulated into injectable preparations and administered via intramuscular injection to be effective; oral administration is ineffective. Therefore, modern medicine holds that placenta consumed after being steamed, boiled, or stewed possesses nutritional value not significantly different from that of ordinary animal meat.