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A Placenta Recipe?!
Amy and John discuss the shocking postnatal practice
By Amy Kean and John D. Schwartz
JOHN: I used to work in an office, and one day, I overheard two co-workers gossiping about the boss's son. We'll call him "Alex." Apparently "Alex," who worked at the company as some sort of nondescript "executive," was on paternity leave. As I eavesdropped, (I didn't work very hard at this particular job) I heard one co-worker say to the other "Yeah, and you want to hear something really gross? They ate the placenta!"
Stunned, I immediately got up from my desk and approached the two co-workers to make sure that I had understood them correctly. They ate the placenta? Surely I misunderstood because I'd never even heard of such a practice. But just then, some jerk who took his job way too seriously walked over and engaged us all in an actual work discussion. So I never got to hear the gory details.
That night I went home and asked my roommate if it was possible that I had overhead my coworkers correctly. And he assured me "No, it's not possible. Because, Dude, that would be cannibalism!"
CUT TO: Tonight--three minutes ago--Amy spun her laptop around to show me this. That's right, it's a photo of a human placenta sandwich! What the ???? I just don't know what to think! And as I browse around the World Wide Web, it appears that there are dozens and dozens of URL's related to placenta eating! Wikipedia entries, recipes, videos... it's even been given a scientific sounding name: placentophagy.
Since I consider myself a very open-minded person, here's my question: Am I just a conservative, uptight jerk with a cannibalism phobia in a world where placentophagy is now a relatively normal and common practice? Or is this still the most disgusting, revolting, ritualistic, devil-worshiping practice ever conceived?
AMY: It's true, I did show John that disgusting photo after I stumbled upon the shocking article on Momlogic.com called, "I Ate My Baby's Placenta" by Chrissy Schilling, who gave birth recently. She and her twin sister Kathy "cooked up the placenta and they had a feast." They even include recipes of different ways to prepare the placenta--on bread, in a stew etc. (I knew twins could be a little weird, but this is too much.)
Oh God! I think I'm going to be sick!
I don't even know where to begin. First of all, the fact that Schilling actually convinced her sister to eat her placenta may have been the most shocking part to me. I cooked a delicious turkey dinner for my own sister and before eating it, she asked, "Amy, are you sure it's fresh? Did you cook it at high enough temperature?" She examined it from every possible angle before finally saying, "I don't know--it looks a little weird to me."
I can only imagine what she'd say if I served her a steaming hot bowl of my own bloody placenta soup!! So gross!
So when one of these crazy placenta eaters gives birth, does she just hand the nurse a handy Tupperware container and say, "Please just save everything in here; I'm having a few friends over for dinner this week"?
And why stop at the placenta? Why don't we eat fry up that benign cyst that we just had removed--delicious on a bed of lettuce! Or how about drinking our own urine--a nutritious--and cost-cutting!-- alternative to lemonade!
I recognize that the placenta is a truly amazing organ--but that doesn't mean we should eat the damn thing. OK, it's a free country, and I don't care if other "humans" chose--for whatever reason--to partake in this ritual.
But I will never--ever!--eat my own placenta, and I would never expect John to either.
By Amy Kean and John D. Schwartz
JOHN: I used to work in an office, and one day, I overheard two co-workers gossiping about the boss's son. We'll call him "Alex." Apparently "Alex," who worked at the company as some sort of nondescript "executive," was on paternity leave. As I eavesdropped, (I didn't work very hard at this particular job) I heard one co-worker say to the other "Yeah, and you want to hear something really gross? They ate the placenta!"
Stunned, I immediately got up from my desk and approached the two co-workers to make sure that I had understood them correctly. They ate the placenta? Surely I misunderstood because I'd never even heard of such a practice. But just then, some jerk who took his job way too seriously walked over and engaged us all in an actual work discussion. So I never got to hear the gory details.
That night I went home and asked my roommate if it was possible that I had overhead my coworkers correctly. And he assured me "No, it's not possible. Because, Dude, that would be cannibalism!"
CUT TO: Tonight--three minutes ago--Amy spun her laptop around to show me this. That's right, it's a photo of a human placenta sandwich! What the ???? I just don't know what to think! And as I browse around the World Wide Web, it appears that there are dozens and dozens of URL's related to placenta eating! Wikipedia entries, recipes, videos... it's even been given a scientific sounding name: placentophagy.
Since I consider myself a very open-minded person, here's my question: Am I just a conservative, uptight jerk with a cannibalism phobia in a world where placentophagy is now a relatively normal and common practice? Or is this still the most disgusting, revolting, ritualistic, devil-worshiping practice ever conceived?
AMY: It's true, I did show John that disgusting photo after I stumbled upon the shocking article on Momlogic.com called, "I Ate My Baby's Placenta" by Chrissy Schilling, who gave birth recently. She and her twin sister Kathy "cooked up the placenta and they had a feast." They even include recipes of different ways to prepare the placenta--on bread, in a stew etc. (I knew twins could be a little weird, but this is too much.)
Oh God! I think I'm going to be sick!
I don't even know where to begin. First of all, the fact that Schilling actually convinced her sister to eat her placenta may have been the most shocking part to me. I cooked a delicious turkey dinner for my own sister and before eating it, she asked, "Amy, are you sure it's fresh? Did you cook it at high enough temperature?" She examined it from every possible angle before finally saying, "I don't know--it looks a little weird to me."
I can only imagine what she'd say if I served her a steaming hot bowl of my own bloody placenta soup!! So gross!
So when one of these crazy placenta eaters gives birth, does she just hand the nurse a handy Tupperware container and say, "Please just save everything in here; I'm having a few friends over for dinner this week"?
And why stop at the placenta? Why don't we eat fry up that benign cyst that we just had removed--delicious on a bed of lettuce! Or how about drinking our own urine--a nutritious--and cost-cutting!-- alternative to lemonade!
I recognize that the placenta is a truly amazing organ--but that doesn't mean we should eat the damn thing. OK, it's a free country, and I don't care if other "humans" chose--for whatever reason--to partake in this ritual.
But I will never--ever!--eat my own placenta, and I would never expect John to either.
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Copyright 2009 WE: Women's Entertainment LLC. All rights reserved.
Copyright 2009 WE: Women's Entertainment LLC. All rights reserved.
First I'd like to share...
Our doctor told my wife and I that if we wanted to take our placenta, which we did not, we would have to hire an undertaker because it is technically taking human remains out of the hospital. Odd.
Having a baby opens new door to all kinds of traditions and odd behavior that one would have otherwise never imagined. Burying the placenta, eating the placenta, breastfeeding til your kid is 8- the list seems endless, and ever-updating.
From what we read placenta-eating was done in third world countries because it is so rich in nutrients... kind of the human version of using the whole animal... nose to tail.
That said, I feel like a good protein shake and a steak is more my speed, and the idea skeeves me out a lot... but to each their own I suppose and it's not wasteful, and if it means something to you, so be it. Can it be cannibalism if it is from you? Wouldn't masturbating then be adultery? Fine line, I suppose.
It seems gross though, more because it reminds me of tripe than because it is human meat.