Eating Placenta May Put Your Newborn Baby At Risk, Says CDC

On the off chance that you were thinking about it…

The craze of eating their (as well as their baby’s) placenta has evolved into a sought-after trend for some new mommies in the US as well as other western countries.

Though this may come across as unnecessarily disgusting to the ‘unenlightened lay person,’ those who promote this practice – termed as placentophagy – have made a wide range of claims, such as an increase in breast milk production, prevention of postpartum depression and more.

But just as we thought this new fashion was going to overcome the common sense of just about everyone, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has now warned new mothers that partaking in placentophagy could inadvertently place your baby at risk of infectious bacteria.

Thank you, CDC.

Now hold up, if you’re a mother with opposing views then don’t get offended. Theoretically, eating a placenta that happens to brim with essential minerals, vitamins and postpartum hormones could perhaps make sense. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that consuming it actually helps you.

Supporters of placentophagy often cite it as being a common practice amongst other mammals. However, the studies that happen to explore the effects this act have found no conclusive evidence of it providing any benefit.

For example, a study from the year before discovered that new mommies who consumed their own placenta were by no means able to significantly increase their iron levels, at least no more than those other run-of-the-mill, iron-rich foods available to us. Which also, coincidentally, have the asset of being more appetizing. Like, way more.

But not only is the claim of potential benefits in question, there is also the risk of negatively impacting the health of your baby that is now a cause for concern. According to a new case report that was published by the CDC, mothers partaking placenta supplements should be warned that their pills are possibly contaminated with infectious bacteria.

The report followed a new mother from Oregon, who gave birth last September to a perfectly healthy baby. However, just a couple of days following that, her child was rushed to the neonatal ICU and thankfully treated just in time for a late onset blood infection by the name of Group B Streptococcus agalactiae, which could have possibly killed him.

But only five days later, the baby was once more rushed to the hospital, once again returning with another Group B Strep infection. The doctors were flummoxed. At least until they happened to discover the mother was using placenta pills that carried not only placenta powder but also Group B Strep.

In an adult, a Group B Strep infection isn’t usually a worry, but it could wreck an infant’s developing immune system and potentially cross the baby’s blood-brain barrier producing neonatal meningitis. After running several lab tests, the researchers were able to determine that the placenta supplements taken by the mother, had elevated the levels of Group B Strep colonies in her own gut and skin thereby facilitating the infection to attack her baby.

At the moment there aren’t any standards existing to ensure proper sterilized processing of placenta packaged for consumption. And the research team at CDC believes that the company responsible for manufacturing those pills may have not carried out an effective dehydration process wherein either the placenta wasn’t heated for a sufficient duration of time or at an effective temperature.

So until further research is carried out and more rigorous protocols and demanding standards are put in place for processing placenta, perhaps it’s just best to avoid the whole ‘let’s-eat-placenta’ mania for awhile.

Was this article helpful?
thumbsupthumbsdown
The following two tabs change content below.