Why do Mammals eat their Placenta? The Pros & Cons & More
Why do Mammals eat their Placenta?
There are several reasons why mammals eat their placenta. The first reason is that it helps them get nutrition when they eat the placenta after birth.
Secondly, eating the placenta is a very good choice of getting rid of the scent of their newborn and protecting them against predators.
The hunting predators are always in search of blood and meat, so eating the placenta also prevents predators from smelling the blood. And thus, protecting the newborn baby from being killed.
Thirdly, when the placenta gets dried and capsulated and is then being fed to the mother then it encourages a rich milk production in the mother’s breasts since the placenta is an extremely good source of nourishment.
It is also to be noted that the nutrients available in the placenta are anti-depressive, so it subsequently helps relieve postpartum depression after childbirth.
A newer hypothesis about the maternal consumption of the afterbirth placenta in mammals is that the placenta contains compounds that increase pain tolerance post parturition that is after the delivery of the baby.
In pieces of literature, it has been mentioned that feeding on the placenta is a very good way of regaining nutrients that might have been lost during child delivery and pregnancy period.
It has also been mentioned that eating the placenta can also encourage mother-child bonding. The scientific explanation for this is still unknown.
According to various ancient science, it is believed that eating the placenta also helps to treat medical conditions such as infertility and severe liver problems.
The placenta is rich in nutrients like glucose and other nutrients and also in various minerals especially like sodium, potassium, and phosphorus.
What actually is the placenta? What is its role?
We all know that when the mother is pregnant and the fetus (baby) is in the mother’s womb, it cannot eat food with its mouth like we or an after birth baby does.
So, there needs to be something present in the mother’s womb that will help the fetus to get the nutrients and keep it alive until the whole time it is developing inside the womb to birth.
That organ is the placenta which helps the fetus to get the nutrients and keep it alive. So, the placenta plays a crucial role during pregnancy.
The placenta is an organ that develops in the mother’s uterus during pregnancy. The baby is developed in close association with the placenta.
The placenta attaches to the wall of the uterus of the mother mammal, and the baby’s umbilical cord arises from it. The organ is usually attached to the top, side, front, or back of the uterus.
Placenta connects to the baby’s navel portion via. the umbilical cord in order to allow nutrient transport, waste excretion, and gas exchange between mother and baby
Now the role of the placenta is to provide nutrition to the baby from the mother’s blood. It also provides oxygen to the growing baby and removes waste products from the baby’s blood.
It also helps the baby to respire as the oxygen from the oxygenated blood of the mother gets into the fetus and the carbon dioxide from the blood of the fetus gets out to the mother’s blood.
Also in mammals, the placenta produces and releases a number of hormones into the bloodstream that is needed during pregnancy, such as lactogen, estrogen, and progesterone.
The placenta also keeps the mammalian mother’s blood to separate from the baby’s blood to protect the baby against harmful infections and blood coagulation due to mismatching of the mother’s and baby’s blood group.
Not only that, but the placenta can also help towards the end of the pregnancy days, bypassing on antibodies to protect the baby after birth.
What is Placentophagy? Let’s Know!
Placentophagy is the act of eating the placenta after the birth of the newborn baby. This act can not only include the feeding of the placenta but also the neonate (an infant less than four weeks old) and other fetal membranes as well.
Placentophagy can be normally seen in most members of the mammals ranging from rodents to primates, and even in humans. Humans are also mammals and in some cultures eating the placenta is a custom.
Those aquatic mammals that give birth to babies inside water are not so well-seen feeding on the placenta. However, the terrestrial mammals are well-seen feeding on the placenta after birth.
Not only the carnivores mammals like lions, leopards, etc. can eat the placenta, but the herbivores mammals like goats, cows, etc. can also eat their placenta and other fetal membranes just after the childbirth.
So, animals such as goats and lions eat the placenta, and they do so immediately after birth by eating the full organ raw and all at once.
It has been seen that not only the mother will feed on the placenta after birth, but the father can also join the feast along with other females in the group of mammalian species.
However, in some species, only the mother after giving birth will participate in feeding the afterbirth placenta and other fetal membranes.
Just, for instance, it has been seen that in rabbits when pregnant and pre-parturient female rabbits are presented with a placental meal there is little participation in the behavior, but all postpartum mothers ate their afterbirth placenta.
What do hospitals do with placentas?
We all know that humans are mammals, and when after successful childbirth the hospitals usually dispose of the placenta in the biodegradable waste dustbin.
Many mom’s may say their doctors to keep their placenta after the childbirth, if they want to feed on it. In such case the mother can either encapsulate it into pill form or add it to smoothies to eat.
The hospitals can also take that placenta as a donation organ in their tissue banks. The tissue of the placenta can help many other patients during their surgery, in the healing of wounds and burns, in ocular procedures, spinal surgeries, and other medical needs.
The placenta is usually discarded as medical waste but, in some countries (such as France or the US), it can also be donated with the mother’s consent to a tissue bank and is used as a way to treat damaged corneas and other body complications.
If any complications arise after childbirth, the hospitals can also send the placenta of the mother to pathology labs to test if anything abnormal has happened during the pregnancy.
Placental tissue, amniotic membrane, and umbilical cord blood are also being used by companies manufacturing drugs, so the placenta can be sent to those companies from the hospitals with the mother’s prior permission.
Biological components from placentas can be found in making medicinal products for wound and burn care and also in many other drug items.
The placenta can be collected from the afterbirth mothers with their consent for doing lab researches, and also for doing studies for new inventions and discoveries in the field of medical and veterinary sciences as well.
What are the benefits and disadvantages of eating placenta?
(Pros) Benefits of eating Placenta
The placenta is a significant organ that nourishes the growing fetus by exchanging nutrients and oxygen and filtering waste products via the umbilical cord. So, feeding the placenta is very nourishing.
Feeding the Placenta can help to get rid of the smell of blood and meat, thus in a way safeguards the newborn from being killed by predators.
Eating the placenta is a natural behaviour of the majority of the mammals from herbivores like cows, goats, etc. to carnivores like lion, hyenas, etc.
Mammals eat their placenta as a way of regaining nutrients that might have been lost during the pregnancy time, baby delivery period, and also to encourage mother-child bonding.
One natural thing is that, eating the placenta can also help in reducing the stress and excessive pain while giving energy boost to the body after the child birth.
(Cons) Disadvantages of eating Placenta
As we all know that and have learned so far that the placenta is very nutritious, but there are numerous drawbacks too.
If the placenta is kept in the open and then is being consumed by the mother than it’s very obvious that it may be contaminated with bacteria or viruses that may cause severe diseases.
There is always the risk of getting sick from eating the raw placenta if it gets contaminated with bacteria or viruses. So, be careful and treat it with anti-bacterial and anti-viral stuff and then cook it before eating.
During pregnancy time, blood from the mother passes through the placenta, filtering oxygen, glucose, and other nutrients to the baby via the umbilical cord. The placenta also filters out substances that could be harmful to the baby in the womb.
So, it is also to be very much clear that another potential drawback includes ingesting environmental toxins that can accumulate in the placenta after it filters out such contaminants.
So, better to avoid eating the placenta if you take such cons into account.