Do you allow patients to take home their placentas if desired? more

bagladyrn, RN · Dec 16, 2007

Just a side note here: I've worked for years in places where a good percentage of the population takes home the placenta. You may want to rethink sending it in a biohazard bag. Here is the problem with that - They take it home, do whatever is appropriate with the placenta, then the red bag goes in the trash, goes to the dump. Guess who gets the fines and bad publicity for improper disposal of biohazardous trash? That's right - Your facility!

What I do is double bag in regular plastic bags, then wrap the whole thing in a chux, taped to be secure and send it home that way.

rnmomtobe2010 · Dec 17, 2007

:barf01:

EXACTLY!!!!!

Elvish, BSN, DNP, RN, NP · Dec 17, 2007

eww. Am I the only one wondering how clean the rooms in your hospital are though if THAT went unnoticed for "a couple of weeks"?? Do you have housekeeping? How was that missed?

1) Yes, we have housekeeping.

2) It was an isolated incident. Heck if I know how it got missed. I wasn't around when it happened.

3) Our hospital's probably no better or worse than most.

Probably something similar has happened at many other hospitals. Just my guess.

MistyBlue · Dec 17, 2007

We had many families who requested the placenta planning to bury it under a tree. As long as the placenta wasn't needed for pathology we would just put it in a bucket with a lid with the pt name on it. The bucket was then placed in a plastic bag. No paperwork necessary.

twinner · Dec 18, 2007

Blee O'Myacin[/b];2549713]Jews don't bury placentas or save foreskins or anything of the sort.
Blee[/quote
Ummmm. excuse me, yes we do.:uhoh21: I'm unsure of the foreskin issue,but we certainly do bury placentas and limbs, esp orthodox ,Hassidic ,but I've had a secular(read--) non-religious Jewish relative bury his leg, I personally gave many a placenta to the father of the baby to speed off to bury before sunset
I must say that I work in a L&D unit that does over 4000 deliveries a year with about 60% of our L&D patients being Hassidic. In my 5 years there I have never, ever had a Hassidic patient ask to take the placenta, nor have I ever heard of such a case. They never ask about the placenta at all it seems.

Elvish, BSN, DNP, RN, NP · Dec 18, 2007

There seems to be quite the debate over whether people of a given faith do or don't take their placentas (placentae??) home. And you know what?

Everyone is probably right. All of us are so individual and don't fit into neat little boxes. Some Jewish people may not take the placenta home, others may. It's ok either way. I've never seen any of our Jewish families do it, but we don't have many Jewish patients to begin with. And just because I've never seen it doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

You might look at me and think, "Oh, she's ABC religion and has XYZ background, I bet she wants her baby circumcised [or her placenta, or no pork, or no blood products, or no beef, or insert-your-preference-here]." You might be right. Or you might not be. :cool:

OzMW · Dec 18, 2007

Ours can take em home if they wish! Love the use of the word "allow"!!! Considering it actually belongs to the woman, she can do what ever she wishes with it! Having said that, few do.

queenjean · Dec 18, 2007

"Quote:

Originally Posted by SteveRN21

:barf01:

EXACTLY!!!!! "

Awww, the poor placenta! It always gets such a bad rap, and it is such an amazing organ! When I worked at the birth center, we always showed it to the mom and family; explaining the different parts, etc. Many of them initially had the above ewww reaction, which quickly changed upon closer examination. We would position it so they could see where the baby had been, explain what we were looking for when we examined it, and show them the placement of the cord. Most end up commenting on how it looks like a tree, and taking pics of it or taking it home. It went from gross to cool.

In my childbirth classes, I had a handout on "the amazing placenta" because I honestly feel this is one aspect of childbirth that is so cool, and it just gets tossed in the trash most of the time. At our hospital now, all the docs just toss it in the container after a quick examination of it; they don't even show it to the families. Even if the family requests to keep it, they don't show it to them, they just put it in the container. Poor placenta!

beckinben, CNM · Dec 18, 2007

:yeahthat:

There seems to be quite the debate over whether people of a given faith do or don't take their placentas (placentae??) home. And you know what?
Everyone is probably right. All of us are so individual and don't fit into neat little boxes. Some Jewish people may not take the placenta home, others may. It's ok either way. I've never seen any of our Jewish families do it, but we don't have many Jewish patients to begin with. And just because I've never seen it doesn't mean it doesn't happen.
You might look at me and think, "Oh, she's ABC religion and has XYZ background, I bet she wants her baby circumcised [or her placenta, or no pork, or no blood products, or no beef, or insert-your-preference-here]." You might be right. Or you might not be.

:yeahthat:

Most of my Native American women don't take the placenta home. But we do offer it to all of them. We have plain white buckets for them.

OzMW · Dec 18, 2007

"Quote:
Originally Posted by SteveRN21
Awww, the poor placenta! It always gets such a bad rap, and it is such an amazing organ! When I worked at the birth center, we always showed it to the mom and family; explaining the different parts, etc. !

Yep I show all the women I care for too. It is a most amazing organ! Apparently good to eat too, but thats another story!!!! :uhoh3: :uhoh3: :uhoh3: :lol2: :lol2: :lol2:

mitchsmom · Dec 23, 2007

Thanks for all the feedback! We need to get with it :)

GrumpyRN63, ADN, RN · Dec 23, 2007

It may have been that my experience was with patients whose babies had already died ;usually btwn 19-23 wks gestation, the tradition ( for burying the placenta) may be different than that of a live birth, I don't know...