Lotus births.

I am not a nurse yet, but it seems that the placenta's function is to provide nutrition while in the womb as well as passing waste right? Out side the womb, the baby gets nutrition from breastfeeding or bottle (but obviously nature intended breastfeeding) and the baby poops alot, so what purpose does the placenta have after birth? I have three kids and could not imagine having had to schlep around a placenta along with the baby. Also, wouldn't it begin to degrade and begin to smell? I am really interested to read these responses.

EEEEEWWWWWWWWW!! Smelly! I couldn't imagine.

This prolonged contact can be seen as a time of transition, allowing the baby to slowly and gently let go of his/her attachment to the mother's body.

I think that whole concept is pretty much ruined by child birth itself!

My older children have blessed me with stories of their lives before birth, and have been unanimously in favour of not cutting the cord- especially Emma, who remembered the unpleasant feeling of having her cord cut, which she describes as being "painful in my heart". Zoe, at five years of age, described being attached to a 'love-heart thing' in my womb and told me "When I was born, the cord went off the love-heart thing and onto there (the placenta) and then I came out." Perhaps she experienced her placenta in utero as the source of nourishment and love.

:stone

WARNING! THE PICTURE FOLLOWING THIS POST IS GRODY.

WARNING! I TOOK THE PICTURE OFF OF HERE. THAT WILL BE ALL.

Hmm. I especially love the part where she describes rubbing it with salt...no, wait- I liked the part where she talks about the smell enticing her cat's curiousity- yes, that was my favorite.

I thought it was interesting that her children claimed to have remembered the cutting of the cord (naturally, there is NO WAY she possibly could have influenced these children in any way to respond to such a question, right?). I also found it interesting that she claimed babies will cry unconsolably and grasp at their cords (paraphrasing here) in an effort to stop the vicious cord-cutting. I, personally, have never seen that, but I'm open to suggestion. There must be a tremendous cord-cutting conspiracy here that MD's have taken great pains to cover up. However, my absolute favorite part, hands down, was when she offered the use of the velvet placenta bag- it's been used in 20 births so far, and you're welcome to borrow it!

No. I changed my mind. I'm going back to the cat wanting to eat it. That's definitely made me decide to do this when I have a baby. I like taunting my cat with human flesh.

Yummy. And in no way an increased potential for infection.

Edited: I took the picture off of here. I predict much offense being taken. I do not wish to offend. So I took the picture off. Of here. It's gone. You can come out now.

NICU

BBBBBWWWWWWAHHHH, BBBBBWWWWWAHHHHH

:roll :roll :roll :roll :roll :roll

Holy cow, that picture wasn't that big on the web site! ROFL!

Quote:

"The placenta, too, dried and shrivelled due to our salt treatment, and developed a slightly meaty smell, which interested our cat!"

and then:

"FYI, the placenta didn't smell either! The only smells coming from the nappy with the placenta in it were from the salt or the lavender."

how perfectly nauseating.

omg.

...sorry...

Two words come to mind. Weird and disgusting. My 10 year old needs her tonsils removed. Maybe I'll save them since we so follishly tossed her placenta. YUCK!!!