Pushed by celebrities, placenta pills become all the rage among wealthy and middle-class mothers in the US | Science and health

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In the United States, the trend has grown after several celebrities have admitted to using it placentophagy. Among them are actresses Alicia Silverstone and Mandy Moore, as well as Kim Kardashian. Last week, celebrity reality TV star Kailyn Lowry posted photos of a placenta smoothie made by a “placenta lab,” one of several companies that make placentaphagy a complex practice that takes tissue from the mother and turns it into pills. , or drugs like this cocktail.

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In Brazil, actress and presenter Fernanda Lima was a celebrity who revealed that she ate pieces of placenta after giving birth. Even the child’s father, Rodrigo Gilbert, did the same.

“Celebrities have really helped the practice become popular,” said Kelly Landis, founder of Lancaster Placenta Co, the company that prepared Kailyn Lowry. “They changed the perception that placentophagy was only for very naturalistic mothers,” he told The Guardian.

Mommy Made Encapsulation, located in five states, is another such company with celebrity clients including actresses Ashlee Simpson and Shay Mitchell.

“We’ve done 300,000 encapsulations to date,” said founder Juliana Corona. “These celebrities and influencers have really boosted my business. They let moms feel like they’re not the only crazy people who want to do this.”

There is no medical evidence of the health benefits of taking the placenta. But the study, which analyzed 23,000 birth records, also found no special risks for babies whose mothers ate the placenta compared with those whose mothers didn’t. So, when in doubt, many women do.

But in at least one case, the child became ill when the mother swallowed the infected placenta. In 2017, the US Centers for Disease Control warned against the practice after a newborn in Oregon was diagnosed with a strep infection. The exact cause could not be determined, but her mother had eaten dried placenta capsules that may have been contaminated. “This is the kind of case that still haunts everyone in the industry,” Corona said.

How services work

Placenta encapsulation services work in a similar way: Before giving birth, the mother who hires them receives a placenta kit that includes an ice box, biohazard bags, and a prepaid shipping box to send the placenta back in. well packaged. At birth, she must tell her nurses that she wants to keep the placenta.

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In the US, only four states have regulations that give the mother the right to keep the organ. But even in other hospitals, many hospitals will allow a woman to do this if she signs a disclaimer saying she won’t sell it.

When the frozen placenta is returned to the company, it is sterilized, bled and placed in a dehydration machine. According to the companies, the dry result looks like a cookie and is then ground into a very fine powder that can be consumed in capsules – or in more creative ways such as smoothies or placenta chocolate. “I’ve heard about placenta spaghetti,” says Juliana Corona.

The price is high, which helps explain why this trend has grown mostly among wealthy and white, middle-class women in the US. At Pluscenta Care, a preparation kit and a pot with capsules cost $375. Lancaster Placenta Co charges $299 for encapsulation, while Mommy Made charges $400.

Melissa Wang, who founded Pluscenta Care, says the business is “exploding”. “There are hippie encapsulators who say they ‘put a blessing in every capsule’ and then there are people like me who are neutral and have different profiles. “It’s definitely a niche industry with different types of people.”

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