New business cards

I got these a while back but haven't had the time to show you all: I got new business cards and rack cards! I'm pretty happy with how they turned out, they match my website (http://www.plakoeis.com/). Vistaprint rocks!

I also got a dosage card and labels but I can't seem to find a picture of those on my computer so I'll upload them later. I feel all professional and stuff now. :p

Herbal Salves

I've been absent, I know. Our computer's USB ports aren't working and I haven't been able to upload pictures and for some reason I'm having a hard time blogging without the use of photos! But I'm here today and hopefully we'll remember to take the computer in to be repaired (a super quick repair we've been told) so that I feel more inspired to blog!

Anyhoo... this is about salves. I *love* salves and have been buying them from farmer's markets, health food stores and small brick and mortar stores for years now. But I always assumed making them was so difficult so I didn't even bother. Well, let me tell you: they're super duper easy!! I made up a placenta salve for a client using a basic first aid salve recipe and then adding about a teaspoon of her dried placenta. I've heard amazing things about placenta salves for cesarean moms and I know of someone who belongs to my placenta service providers group who's daughter nearly had her fingers amputated in a paper shredder accident (!!) and her mother applied placenta salve to it to speed up the healing. But I had no personal experience nor did I personally know someone who used it postpartum so I offered it free to a few clients in exchange for feedback. I also made up a batch without added placenta for a friend's birthday on the weekend. Now I just need to get around to making myself a batch (I want both placenta and regular first aid salve).

Here's a recipe and how to:

First Aid Salve

• First you need to make an herbal infused oil. I used one part herbs to 2 parts oil. The oil I chose was a mixture of organic (make sure to only use organic ingredients for salves) virgin coconut oil and apricot kernal oil. I used comfrey, calendula and goldenseal and placed a tablespoon of each into a crockpot. Then I added 4 tablespoons of coconut oil and 2 tablespoons of apricot kernal oil. Turn the crockpot onto low and let the oil infuse for about 3 hours. Let cool and strain into a clean container using cheesecloth.
• In a pot on low-medium heat, warm the infused oil and add about a tablespoon of grated beeswax (use local beeswax if available). Then you can add 800 IUs of vitamin E and a drop of lavender essential oil. You can also add 1/2 a tsp of tea tree oil but I chose not to. Stir until beeswax melts into oil.
• You'll know your mixture is the right consistency by dipping a teaspoon into the pot and then sticking it into the freezer to set. When it sets, test it to make sure it's not too hard or too soft. If it's too soft, add a little more beeswax. If it's too hard, add more oil.
• Pour into sterile brown glass jars and seal.
• Voila... you are done! This can be used on cuts, scrapes, bug bites, etc.

For placenta salve, I make a second batch of infused oil using a teaspoon (or 1 or two capsules) of dried and ground placenta in 100mls of carrier oil: I used apricot kernel oil). Either in a double boiler or a crockpot set on low, allow the placenta to infuse the oil for abuot an hour or so. You'll know it's done when you start to smell placenta (not burnt or overly strong, just placenta-y.) Strain into a small pot using cheesecloth and then add 3 tablespoons of the first aid salve and follow above instructions.

To use placenta salve on a cesarean incision, wait until the bandages have been removed and the wound has closed up. A mother who birthed vaginally can also use this cream on tender or torn and reparied bits too. The same rule for taking encapsulated placenta internally applies for placenta salve: if infection of any kind is suspected, stop use until all symptoms disappear.

Placenta Encapsulation ~ A How-To

I was trying to decide if I wanted to post pictures on how to encapsulate a placenta or not. At first I didn't want to because afterall, it is a service I provide to Nanaimo and area families and didn't want to miss out on business. But then I changed my mind and because I want every woman to be able to experience the benefits of placentophagy even if they can't afford it (although I do offer a trade or sliding scale system as well).

So here it is... thanks to a good friend of mine who's placenta I encapsulated 2 weeks ago and has given me permission to blog about the processs and share photos with y'all!

Please be warned, there is photos of a human placenta and there is some blood. So if you're squeamish then please don't continue reading! :)

How to Encapsulate Your Placenta

This is a placenta that was previously frozen (my friend lives out of town and wasn't sure when I'd be able to come down to encapsulate it for her so she froze it). First thing you want to do is rinse it really well to remove blood clots. I sever the cord and leave the membranes on.

Wrap the membranes around the placenta and add some chopped hot pepper and ginger (I now also add lemon). Place in a steamer and set over a small amount of water.

Steam gently for 15 minutes on each side and bleed it occasionally (bleed it by poking it with a knife). It's done when there is no more blood when you poke it with a knife and the membranes have pulled back.

When it's cool enough to handle, slice into very thin pieces. Think beef jerky. :-p

Either use a dehydrator or line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and put in oven on the lowest setting with the door propped open. This will take anywhere from 7-10 hours.

Don't forget the cord keepsake! This one I later learned was done wrong. When it dehydrated, it was no longer a heart shape but a stick shape. I should have had the ends meet at teh bottom and twisted it to keep it from coming undone.

You can tell it's finished when the placenta snaps and is fully dried. Be careful not to cook it, you just want to dehydrate and a very low heat (remove all moisture but not cooking it). Put all the dried slices into a blender (I use a Magic Bullet) and grind until a fine powder. Use a mortar and pestle to get the stubborn bits that won't grind down.

When it's all ground up finely, fill up size 00 gelatin caps.

And Voila! That's how you encapsulate a placenta. And it only took 12-15 hours, lol!

I did it!

I am now offering placenta encapsulation for Vancouver Island (mainly Ladysmith to Nanoose but can do other areas for a higher fee).
I am so excited to be offering this!!
Check out my website (still a huge work in progress!): Plakoeis
Why Plakoeis? Well, placenta is taken from the work plakoeis which means flat cake. Seems fitting, no?
Anyways... spread the word! Let's make placentophagy a normal part of the birthing and postpartum process! :)

My experience with Placentophagy

As most of you know, I had my placenta encapsulated (dried, ground up and put into capsules) during my first few days postpartum. I decided to take them to avoid PPD but I got so much more out of it than that! For me the benefits were noticeable right away which surprised me.. I was thinking it would take a week or so to kick in.
Benefits of placentophagy for me were:

• increase in energy. This was huge for me because with my first two children, I was so tired for the first few months. This time I was going for walks and feeling good about it at 4 days pp.
• increase in mental clarity. I felt awake after only a few days of taking my pills. There was no "mommy fog" that I had with my first two. And you'd think with 3 children in the house, I'd be feeling foggy more so this time around!
• no major mood swings. My mood and my emotions have been pretty consistent, no major ups or downs like during pregnancy or postpartem after my first 2.
• milk came in earlier. With my first two, my milk didn't come in until day 5 an 6. This time it started coming in at the end of day 2.
• faster recovery. I think because my body was more nourished from the placenta, I was able to heal faster, I wasn't as sore and my stitches healed faster.
• shorter postpartem bleed. The other two times I had very heavy bleeding the first two weeks and bleeding didn't stop until around 6 weeks in. This time, it slowed down within days and fully stopped by week 4.
• increase in libido/quick return of desire. This is a bit tmi but it's an unexpected benefit for me and I know lack of desire is a huge stress for most new moms. I don't know if it's the hormones or because of all the other benefits and I just feel more like my old self faster that this increase and return of libido has returned quicker.

I was taking two capsules a day bit on "rough" days I took two more later om in the day. I stopped taking it at 6 weeks as I felt 100% healed for a few weeks but within a few days I was no longer feeling as great. I was tired and irritable and feeling down. So started taking them again but only 1 per day now and will do so until they run out.
All in all, I am SO impressed and thankful for this amazing healing organ my body grew to grow Sophie and to heal me.

Placentophagy Resources

When I was pregnant with Sophie I researched as much as I could about placentophagy (consuming placenta). It's hard to find resources on this because there really hasn't been many studies done so most of what's out there is personal experience.

I decided to do up a list and a bunch of links to resources I found useful in learning about placentophagy and encapsulation and share it! Hopefully you all find it useful as well and it helps you decide that using your placenta for postpartem healing is the way to go!

http://placentabenefits.info/index.asp (I really like the information on this site but as someone who is learning to process placenta I'm a bit disappointed with the business side of things. When I inquired about taking the training through them, I got a recorded interview to listen to before calling them for my own interview. In the taped interview, the owner of PBi explained how it would work once training is completed and it left a bad taste in my mouth. Basically, you pay PBi a certain amount from each time you are hired to encapsulate placenta and you have to get a certain number of clients each month. This felt like I was applying for a carsales position and I was not interested at all and have decided to learn myself through experience. But ignoring that, they do have great information on their site)

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1908194,00.html (a humorous article on a father's experience with encapsulation)

http://www.gentlebirth.org/archives/eatplcnt.html (GREAT resource with LOTS of information)

http://www.mothering.com/discussions/showthread.php?t=912886 (Mothering.com is one of my favourite resources for all things natural. This has a link to the process in encapsulating placenta.

http://www.mothering.com/discussions/showthread.php?t=944092 (another link to a discussion on Mothering.com)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22087790/

http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local-beat/After_Birth_May_be_Key_to_Bouncing_Back_After_Birth_Bay_Area.html (video clip)

Placenta Encapsulation

Before Sophie was born, my husband and I decided we wanted to take her placenta home with us. I had terrible PPD after the birth of my son and didn't want to experience that again nor did I want to take medication for it while I was nursing my daughter. Even though some anti-depressants get a passing grade for nursing mothers, it still passes onto the infant and can cause lethargy which I noticed with Parker. So having Sophie's placenta processed and encapsulated was a no brainer for us.

Consuming placenta has been a part of history for a very long time and is a part of traditional Chinese medicine that women have been taking for thousands of years to aid in the speedy recovery from giving birth.

Placenta contains many vitamins and minerals such as B6 and is high in iron and protein. It also contains Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone which is proven to be a stress reducer which postpartem women have a less than average amount of. Placenta is also believed to help with lactation.

I found this website to be very useful: http://placentabenefits.info/index.asp. After talkign with my doula who has been processing placenta for nearly 30 years and also talking with my midwife, I decided this was something I was interested in.

When I delivered the placenta the nurses put it in the freezer for us. I was expected them to say something but they didn't even bat an eye. I've heard horror stories of hospitals refusing to release the placenta to the mother, etc. But this wasn't our case at all I think because it's becoming more and more popular for mothers to take the placenta home.

Lorie, our doula, came over 4 or 5 days after Sophie's birth to process the placenta for us. At first I was looking into doing it ourselves as it is pretty simple but caring for a newborn, a toddler, a teenager plus recovering from childbirth I knew it'd be best to hire someone to do this for us!

I meant to take pictures of the encapsulation but I decided to take a much needed nap instead. Basically what Lorie did was remove the cord and membranes (we have that in the freezer still to plant under a special tree for Sophie this spring or summer) and then she steamed it. This part I remember quite well as it has a very strong smell much like liver. After steaming it, she sliced it thin and dehydrated it for 7 or so hours. The next morning Lorie came over to grind it up and put it into capsules for me. Simple as that!

I take two each morning and I can honestly say I feel a difference. I'm no longer weepy, less stressed and I generally just feel better.