Of the (almost all white) women who were surveyed, 40 percent reported that their mood improved, 26 percent said they had more energy, and 15 percent reported “improved lactation.” Ninety-eight percent said they would eat their placentas again. It plays an important role in your pregnancy: It connects you and your baby in the uterus and delivers oxygen, nutrients, and hormones to her. They also say it can level off your hormones, lowering your chances of postpartum depression and insomnia. Ms. Daly: And just explain what encapsulates. So there is no proof that eating your placenta actually does these things. So the practice of placentophagy, human placentophagy is when a mother, basically after birth, she takes her placenta home with her. And after dehydrating it and crushing it up, it goes into an actual pill. While the placenta does exist to nourish the fetus inside the uterus, it also serves as a barrier between the unborn child and the environment, and bacteria and heavy metals like selenium, lead, and mercury have also been found in post-birth placentas. Often the woman is hiring some type of placenta encapsulation service, which is commonly performed by a midwife or a doula, and that's pretty much how it works. Dr Clark: It is unclear what inspired the practice. Neither do we know what’s in the placenta, really. Dr Clark: So what we understand about animals eating their placenta is partly that they are protecting themselves and their newborn from predators because the smell of afterbirth, so they eat their placenta for that reason. It's possible that it does offer them also some other benefits such as reduction of pain and maybe even some nutrients, but what we know about animals is that they eat it raw, and they eat it in its entirety right after birth. They don't eat it in one setting, and it's not right in the delivery room. The review also states that this study did not “adhere to current scientific standards and conclusions cannot be drawn.” 
 
 Another more recent study from 2013 just looked at the self-reported experiences of women who’d eaten their placentas. The few studies done on placentophagy in humans are less than ideal. So another study—and the only study to look at actual human benefits of placentophagy—it looked at the effects of placentophagy on milk production and the population of 210 women who were fed freeze-dried human placenta. We didn't have a control group, and it was very vague as to how they determined increased milk production. There’s one from 1954, which fed participants freeze-dried placenta and then checked on their breast-milk production. I'm wondering why you think there have not been more studies that look at the potential risks. Ms. Daly: Where do you think your research will go next? Remember, though, that's for a dog, not for a woman.
– There are the routine entries of the pregnancy to-do list: Buy and safely install the car seat. Set up the crib. Stock a drawer with tiny onesies. But on Jordan Thiering's list, this odd item: Go to court to secure her right to her placenta. The Mississippi woman had determined she wanted to eat the placenta that was sustaining her unborn son after his birth. It's an age-old practice called placentophagy that WebMD points out is practiced in the animal kingdom and among tribal women—and a trendier set, with the Atlantic noting that celebs like Kourtney Kardashian and January Jones have extolled the practice. And while a 2015 analysis of 10 studies on the subject found it provided no "protection against postpartum depression" and had no positive effect on lactation, energy, or maternal bonding, Thiering didn't care. "If it does nothing, it does nothing, but it's the whole perspective of being able to kind of have what I want, rightfully so," she tells the Clarion-Ledger. But when the Brandon woman told her doctor about her plan to encapsulate the organ, which typically weighs about a pound by the baby's birth, her doctor suggested she check with the hospital. It gave her some surprising news—she needed a court order. A memo provided to the newspaper by state epidemiologist Dr. Thomas Dobbs explains the state's view: that no hospital "may release non-infectious medical waste (including placental tissue) without there first having been obtained by a court order ... which will assure proper disposal by the release." Her petition was granted by the court on May 17, and her attorney hopes Thiering has "paved the way" for other women. (The placenta may have saved this boy's life.)