A couple of years ago, Kim Kardashian blessed us by naming her second-born Saint West. We all saw it coming, and we all thought “how so hollywood” when they announced it to the world. Right after the pregnancy, she then shared and sang praises on her social media about the wonders of taking pills made out of her own placenta.
The hollywood royalty swore by the pills, claiming that it helped her accelerate her overall healing process and keep from falling to postpartum depression. She just couldn’t see how she could “go wrong with taking a pill made of my own hormones—made by me, for me.”
My experience eating my placenta is up on my app! https://t.co/0aC3YXxIgv pic.twitter.com/xcCEtVCvzb
— Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) December 14, 2015
Fast forward to the present, and we have an answer exactly how wrong taking these superstitious supplements could go. It could actually hurt your baby.
It was recently reported that a mother unknowingly passed on an infection to her newborn infant because of consuming her own placenta. The mother did as the divas do and had her placenta freeze-dried and turned into pills. Then she took those pills two to three times a day.
Shortly after, she was taking her baby back to and fro the hospital because of an infection that nobody could pinpoint the source of. When the doctor was notified that the mother was taking placenta pills, the doctor instructed the mother to stop consumption and took the pills for examination. It turned out that the bacteria infecting the baby came from the placenta, and was passed on to the infant through the mother’s breastmilk.
Thankfully, the infant was treated and safe.
There’s no strong scientific evidence backing the efficacy of placenta pills as a post-natal vitamin. However, its consumption is strongly discouraged by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“The placenta encapsulation process does not per se eradicate infectious pathogens; thus, placenta capsule ingestion should be avoided,” says an article in the CDC’s weekly newsletter.
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