The Rad Placenta

I was recently banned from posting on BWF and personally on Facebook for this placenta picture taken by Seana. I was also warned that next time, pages and profiles might be deleted. There is nothing stating in any Facebook policies that organs are violating any rules. We all know there are many obscene pictures that do violate policies and are never removed.

A placenta though? And a rad one like this one? Come on! That is the Tree of Life. Photography. Art!

Is that a ‘naked’ placenta? Is it showing nipple? Oh no, a ‘graphic’ organ picture! I think this might traumatize or offend someone who never got to see their placenta! (Note: sarcasm)

OK, really though, what IS this placenta? What exactly does it do?

“The placenta has been described as a pancake-shaped organ that attaches to the inside of the uterus and is connected to the fetus by the umbilical cord. The placenta produces pregnancy-related hormones, including chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), estrogen, and progesterone.

The placenta is responsible for working as a trading post between the mother’s and the baby’s blood supply. Small blood vessels carrying the fetal blood run through the placenta, which is full of maternal blood. Nutrients and oxygen from the mother’s blood are transferred to the fetal blood, while waste products are transferred from the fetal blood to the maternal blood, without the two blood supplies mixing.

The placenta is expelled from the uterus in a process called the after-birth.”

Let’s take a look at some more pictures of this amazing organ. One that gave every single person reading this LIFE!

Here is Hillary with her son (and his little feet) still attached to the placenta (seen above) and his cord.

Nurturing…

Here is the placenta print for the above placenta…

A very large placenta for one baby…

A very large placenta for one baby!

Fascinating! Examining the placenta…

“The placenta from my son born 8-19-09  11lbs 13oz, 24.5 inches…19 days past my “due date” The placenta weighed just over 2 lbs!!  It even had a true knot in the cord.  The cord was so thick and healthy that my midwife did not have a tool large enough to clamp it off.   Here the midwife is showing my 10 y/o daughter the different parts of the placenta.  This was my third birth, second home water birth.” -Stacey

“This is from my son Draven’s Placenta born Jan14 2012. We had prints as well as capsules & a tincture made from it.” -Amanda

 

Here is a sweet baby boy still attached to his placenta…

After a UBAC (Unassisted Birth After Cesarean)…

Lily’s Rad Placenta pictures has been removed from FB 3 times!

Taken by Jessica with One Tree Photography

Placenta Benefits

“There is also a growing trend of using the placenta to facilitate the woman’s postpartum recovery through ingestion of the placenta, known as placentophagy. The placenta is incredibly nutritious and contains many of the vitamins, minerals and hormones that a mother’s body needs to adequately recover from the pregnancy and birth. Women who take part in this practice feel that they have a faster recovery from the pregnancy and birth, have more energy and increased milk production, and often do not experience any postnatal mood instability such as the “baby blues,” or postpartum depression.”

*Thank you to all the BWF Moms who sent in placenta pictures!

83 Comments

  • Theresa

    I see nothing offense whatsoever in your pictures. In fact, it’s the exact opposite!! Utterly and completely fascinating. I was never able to have children so I enjoying “experiencing” thru others. Might be a dumb question, but I am curious. Why encapsulate it? why bury it with a tree?

    • Andre

      Theresa, the encapsulation helps a mother in postpartum to avoid depression or too many hormonal mood swings, and some people bury in the ground where they will plant a tree to give all the nutrients the placenta has to that tree.. some people do it as a ritual, it is said that the benefits from the nutrients will make that tree grow super healthy. cheers

    • Kate

      I know this is late, but I’ve experienced one of our dogs who had given birth eating the puppy sacks, cords, etc. It’s very normal in the animal world. Maybe we should learn something from them. I wish I had know so many of these things. I would have loved to have a print of our placentas for each of our kiddos. It is a tree of life and so full of vital nutrients. I read that growing am actually tree with a placenta makes it stong.

  • Jenna@CallHerHappy

    It’s amazing to me that we live in a world where it is acceptable to post videos to YouTube of kids huffing household products, but a mother cannot post a picture of something cool like this.

    Now, this is coming from a momma who wanted to see the placenta after giving birth (I was very curious!), but I didn’t take it further than that. I didn’t know people did so much with it!

    Regardless of how much attention you give it, it’s a cool thing!

  • Tina

    I am amazed and thrilled to see these photos! The placenta is a tree of life and I can see where placental art could help us reclaim our connections to the earth and the wonders of creation. The PTB are afraid of most things related to pregnancy, birth, breast feeding, bleeding and the messiness of being female. They think nothing of nakedness of women for porn, large fake breasts to sell men’s mags…. I applaud you for sharing these wonderful pictures. Don’t Stop! Share, Share, Share. with respect Tina

  • Shannon

    Look, that’s great that you think these pictures are gorgeous. I completely understand.

    I personally find it repulsive and would prefer for it not to be on Facebook, just as I find pictures of burnt children being used for like-farming distasteful, etc. There are lots of things that are inside of the human body and things that come out of the body that are perfectly natural and even beautiful from a “nature/the workings of the human body are amazing” kind of way, but that doesn’t mean that everyone or even most people find them beautiful to look at.

    If Facebook removed your image, it’s because someone reported it. That means they weren’t cool with it. The thing with Facebook is that even when something is posted on a subject-specific page (like BWF), if someone likes that photo it appears in the newsfeeds of other people who do not like that page and likely do not share all the same views on the beauty of a placenta.

    If you feel differently about it’s beauty, that’s fine. But why post the picture on Facebook, where I would wager most people don’t want to see it, when you can post it here on a forum with like-minded people where you can be confident that you won’t make anyone lose their lunch? I feel it’s a bit selfish to expect other people to tolerate it. It’s not exactly the sort of thing people can unsee or simply not look at; by the time they realise they don’t want to see it, it has already been seen. That’s how I came across this picture.

    I might find a nice open wound I got while protecting my child from an attacking dog to be a beautiful image of my courage and protective nature, but I bet you wouldn’t appreciate a picture of my gory injury showing up in your newsfeed. I feel like that lacks consideration for other people who occupy the same cyber-space as you do. You don’t need to post everything on Facebook. You can save some things for conversations with like-minded people or, funnily enough, just for yourself.

    Anyway, that’s just my thought, from one stranger to another. Have a lovely week 🙂

    • Melly

      Are you kidding? A placenta compared to a burnt child is ludicrous! Also comparing a placenta to a gory, open wound is like comparing apples to oranges. There is no comparison! A placenta gives and sustains life.
      FYI after the birth of my second child I had my placenta ground up so I could take the pills and they were very effective in helping me overcome post natal yuckies as well as increasing milk production.

    • ddah

      Seriously… what an absolutely ridiculous comparison. AND, if you don’t like a photograph you see on FB, you can “hide” it so you don’t have to see it, and still respect others’ rights to post what they want. I wish I hadn’t seen your stupid post, but that’s the way the Internet goes. I wouldn’t “report” it, but I’d definitely hide it from my news feed, as I do most ignorant posts. 🙂

    • Anita

      I think the photos are beautiful. I wish I had had the opportunity to see my placenta and avoid the postpartum depression. I feel lucky that my daughter gave birth in a more enlightened time. As someone else has mentioned, if you don’t like the photos, you can hide them from your feed. I certainly do that with some other posts I find offensive.

    • Jennifer

      Shannon,
      I really think you should re-examine your argument. Comparing a life-giving organ to child abuse is pretty far fetched. Fact of the matter is, photos of placentas do not violate FB’s current rules. Now, the countess T & A shots plastered all over the networking site do violate their sexually explicit ban- yet they persist and proliferate at an alarming rate. I see images, stories, memes everyday on my feed that tick me off, gross me out- but I either delete the poster or get over it- sometimes they challenge my beliefs or I learn something new-but censorship by FB or self imposed is not the answer.

  • Jenica Prescott

    I’ve seen graphic pictures of abused children and animals . Pictures with obscene language or sexual content . Even a video of a man dying . But a natural part of a woman’s body is a violation ? If I hadn’t seen pictures of the very cool and interesting placenta I wouldn’t have learned about placenta encapsulation . That’s not only beneficial but life changing information . The Internet is full of offensive material and its pointless to spend time trying to get all the things that make you uncomfortable removed . Scroll on by , hide or block profiles and leave the website if you don’t like it .

  • Patricia Cordeiro

    If you don´t like the pictures, don´t acess the site or like de page. You just see what you want to see on the internet. Information is optional. By the way, lovely and strong pictures!

  • Brianna

    I beleive strongly that education and an awareness of the placenta and it’s vital and beautiful role in creating life is a reclaiming of our birth experience! For to long people have been told that the birthig process is disgusting, dirty and dangerous, this is how we create our wonderful children! It’s beautiful and fundimentally wonderful! In the past women were very often helpers in labor before they themselves had there baby; they understood the process and it was a huge advantage. The placenta is a vital peice of birth. I say to ban photos of a placenta is to ban pictures of birth.

  • Elizabeth Buttner

    I am an RN working in the Special Care Nursery of a large Birth Unit. I have just finished watching a documentary on the research being done at the ‘King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre’ in Riyadh. The research has been looking at the health of the embryo at a micro-nutrient level and the impact a mother’s diet can have on the health outcome of her baby, not only during infancy but in later life. The placenta plays a very important role in the transferring and filtering of this nutrition. In Saudi Arabia, they have so much respect for the placenta, they have special burial grounds for them and bury them with ritual and respect. Reaction to your placenta images is very immature and comes from a very ignorant intelligence . Keep up the good work…….. Regards, Elizabeth

    • Lulua

      I am not sure if you”ll see this, as its been 4 years since you left this comment, but I was hoping to get more information about what you said. I am an American living in Riyadh and have been looking for anyone trained in placenta encapsulation here and was wondering if you know anyone? Thank you for your time!

  • Iris Josephina

    thank you SO much for sharing this with the world.
    western society needs to reconnect with their bodies. we are alienated from nature and things that are absolutely natural.
    thank you for helping to make this change.
    thank you for sharing the beauty of Life here.

  • Lorraine

    Seeing all these wonderful pictures, makes me a little sad that I didn’t get to see mine… After having my waters broken, the doctors freaked that there was poo and as soon as my son was born he was cord was cut and taken to the warmer. but i got him back about 5 minutes later, for skin to skin and a feed.

  • Linda

    I don’t see anything wrong with these photos. They are not promoting sex, violence or hate. They are a natural part of every person’s life. Love it.

  • CANDY

    wow I think those prints of the placenta are so beautiful!! I just had my first baby in October 2012. I wish there were places around here or midwifes willing to do home births/water births. I would love to experience that. Love the pictures. !! I am studying to be a nurse.. . . . so to me… these pics are just adding to my education!!! 😉 not offended by them what so ever.

  • esther

    Wow facebook, with all the offensive things you allow people to post…Personally, I dont have much of a stomach for gory pictures. After the home birth of my son though I realized that birth is something so different, so beautiful. It needs to be understood, and seen (and not just in sex education classes to try and scare kids into using protection). I personally didn’t feel like my placenta pills helped me out to much, but these placenta pictures are fabulous! I’ve never seen colors like that. Thanks for sharing.

  • Rachael

    I found this absolutely, completely fascinating. I so wish I could have had home births, but due to tough pregnancies, I never could. I love especially the artwork!

  • Kristen

    When it comes to posting things on facebook…I don’t see anything wrong with the placenta pics. I am friends with people on facebook that post pics that are not the most appealing pics of on the line of being naked men, and other things. I just ignore it. When you sign on to using the internet, you agree to the knowledge that you may see or read things you don’t agree with, or find offensive. It is called FREE SPEECH.

    Just like some people like to be in the medical field because they find it fascinating. Other people do not have the stomach for it. It is the same as TV. Are you gonna report a station just because they are showing a program that is of mother’s giving birth? No, you just skip past the channel and go to something you like…or how about a medical magazine that has a picture of an open head revealing the brain? Are you going to write the publisher and say that you find it offensive and they shouldnt be publishing pictures you can’t stomach? NO, you simply don’t pick up the magazine and look through it or read the articles. All of this is inherent risk to living in this world. Stop getting on the internet and on facebook if you don’t want to come across something you might find offensive. I don’t find the pics of the placenta beautiful to look at, but I don’t find it offensive either. But I think that people should be free to post placenta pics if they want to, its not nudity (porn)…its a medical photo…We all want to pretend we live in an innocent beautiful world…..sorry simply not true…there will always be something that someone does not agree with….

  • Rowan

    I know I’m late to the game here, but I really appreciate people like you going to the trouble of posting stuff like this. I honestly didn’t know what a placenta looked like until about 3 months ago, and I’m due in two days! How can we be so ignorant to such an important life-giving part of pregnancy?

    I was disgusted when I first saw what they looked like, and a little bit fascinated – but I’m not disgusted any more. I realised that any distaste I felt was purely conditioned by a society that tells us that women’s bodies are dirty, and that childbirth needs to be as sterile and clinical as possible. That first picture at the top really does show just how magical this organ really is, and how we shouldn’t take it for granted.

  • Susan Anderson

    I am wondering if you’ve had any expedite with or heard of a placenta measuring 8.5cm thick? That’s what mine is measuring. There is nothing documented in terms of ‘scientific’ research yet my midwife expressed her (rather significant) fear that I am at risk for PPH. There are no other issues presenting with the placenta yet she is feeling this way. I’m frustrated as I feel that my practitioners are just looking for pathology.

    I’d love some feedback and your thoughts! Due August 1.
    Susan

  • Natasha

    How big was the big placenta? Mine was 5kg bigger than my baby. I had a healthy pregnancy and gave birth naturally with no problems only slow labour. It was thick just big as and was hard the OB to hold with two hands

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