Placenta Power E-Book

Dr. med. Sophia Johnson

• Herausgeber: Stadelmann Verlag
• Kategorie: Ratgeber
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 204

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

Everything about the miracle organ: function during pregnancy, importance for the mother and integrative use as a remedy The placenta is a true “all-rounder”: it does amazing things for the child and mother during pregnancy. After birth it is used in many ways, including as a postnatal remedy. But how exactly does the placenta work? How does she care for and protect the child in the womb? And can it help with maternal mood swings or milk production problems after birth? The doctor Sophia Johnson and the biologist Jana Pastuschek are scientifically working on this complex miracle organ. They examined hormones, trace elements and microorganisms in the human placenta to get to the bottom of the question: Is this the miracle pill for the postpartum period? In this book, the authors present the latest research results. They introduce the placenta universe in an entertaining and understandable way and name medical, historical and curious facts. They address the topic of placentophagy (placenta consumption) in detail and provide practical tips and recipe suggestions from placenta capsules to smoothies. From a medical-scientific perspective, this presentation is supplemented by reports from women who have used their placenta as a medicine.

Leseprobe

1st edition 2023 978-3-96914-028-4 © Stadelmann VerlagNesso 8, 87487 Wiggensbach www.stadelmann-verlag.de [email protected]

The work, including its parts, is protected by copyright. Any use is not permitted without the consent of the publisher.

This applies in particular to electronic or other reproduction,

Translation, distribution and making available to the public.

All rights reserved.

German Proofreading: Mariette Franz (www.mariette-franz.de)

Production: Eberl & Koesel Studio, Kempten

English translation: Dr. med. Sophia Johnson

Proofreading of the English translation: Professor Sheila Dickson, University of Glasgow

Printed by: Mediaprint, Paderborn

IMPORTANT NOTE

The ideas, methods and suggestions in this book represent the opinions and experiences of the authors. They have been compiled by the authors to the best of their knowledge and checked with the greatest possible care. However, they are no substitute for personal and medical advice. Each reader remains responsible for his or her own actions. The information provided here should never be used as the sole source for health-related decisions. It should not be used as a basis for independent diagnoses or for starting, changing or stopping treatment of illnesses. Readers are urged to contact appropriate medical professionals when making such medical decisions.  Accordingly, the authors are not responsible for any injuries or adverse consequences arising from any suggestions or advice given in this book.

Additionally, this book contains references to websites and books over whose content the authors had no role in either producing or influencing.  Therefore, the authors are not responsible for any injuries or other adverse consequences arising from reliance by readers upon any such websites or books.

The manuscript of this book was written by Sophia Johnson. Jana Pastuschek was involved in the lecturing- and review process and contributed following sub-chapters: „The toxic Placenta“, „The phylogenetic origin of the placenta“ and „Hotly debated: Placenta and microbiome“ as well as parts of „The placenta as a research object“, „The ritual use of the placenta“, „Basic research on placentophagy in the placenta laboratory“, and „Introduction to our placenta universe“.

Table of contents

Preface to the English translation

Foreword

Introduction to our placenta universe

The placenta: miracle organ and all-rounder

The phylogenetic origin of the placenta

Placenta basics

From the sphere to the disk

The placental metabolism

Protection and defense - placental immunology

Hotly debated: Placenta and Microbiome

The placenta as a hormone factory

At a glance: important hormones produced by the placenta

The birth of the placenta

Pregnancy accomplished

The ritual use of the placenta

History and curiosities

From the Pharmacopoeia by Landamman

The doctorate of Dr. Möslein

“Many world stars swear by it: Hormocenta!”

Placenta as a remedy

The medical perspective: dimensions of healing

The integrative use of the placenta

Placentophagy

A clarification of terms

Placentophagy in the animal kingdom

Maternal placenta ingestion

Drug or food?

... of course, the mother can decide!

The placenta as a research object

Basic research in the placent lab

Hormone withdrawal in the puerperium

The experiments begin ...

Cooked, dehydrated or raw?

So what’s inside?

Concentrations of hormones in placental tissue

Progesterone and allopregnanolone - the female mood hormones?

Trace elements in placental tissue

Placenta as a source of energy?

Is it alive? Microorganisms in placental tissue

The toxic placenta

The state of research on placentophagy

The shaky pillars of evidence-based medicine

We love questioning science!

Where are the female questions in science?

And now once again in plain language – IS the whole thing supposed to achieve something?

For new fathers: the recipe corner

Preparation

Now the mother has to decide ...

APPENDIX

REFERENCES

Preface to the English translation

We wrote this book a year ago in our mother tongue, German. In order to make our research and findings accessible to a wider audience, we have decided to translate “Plazenta Power” into English. However, this is purely a translation. It is not an adaptation for English-speaking or other countries, which means that we refer to German laws and regulations. Please note that the statements in this book may not be applicable, valid or legal in another country or state. We therefore ask you to undertake your own research on those topics independently. Furthermore, the ideas and thoughts shared in this book might be influenced by our German culture. We ask for your understanding if we do not adequately reflect your customs, rules or culture. It is not our intention to judge or offend anyone in any way. We are fascinated by all different kinds of placentas, no matter who gave birth to them! Enjoy entering the placenta universe!

Sophia Johnson and Jana Pastuschek,

Weimar and Jena, June 2024

Foreword

An entire book just about the placenta? When the placenta simply “appears” after the birth? No, it is not simply that and the afterbirth is not just the “birth after birth”. After the dramatic stretching of the vagina by the child, it allows the woman a further, much gentler stretching and soft birth - as a kind of reconciliation after the birth of the child; a soft, warm conclusion to this so formative birthday of her child.

The modern technical term “placenta” (Latin: cake) has replaced the long-used term “afterbirth”. And that’s a good thing. In common parlance, the placenta has long been called a mother´s cake and sometimes also a child’s cake. These terms do far more justice to the organ. After all, it has nourished the child since its conception, allowing it to grow and thrive. No placenta, no child! Because without all these vital substances that the placenta produces and transports to the child via the umbilical cord, the growth of a child in the womb would not be possible. The placenta is also responsible for removing the baby’s metabolic products - an all-round talent that offers a 24-hour service to the unborn child. The Mexican term “companion” or the term “other half”, which is commonly used in Latvia, is therefore far more appropriate.

The placenta provides reliable care for the child, parents can trust it to a great extent and so they should also look at it after the birth and thank it for its perfect care. This was the baby’s cradle during pregnancy: soft, red-blue-purple in color and covered with a delicate silk canopy (the egg membranes). I always said: Look, your child was wrapped in velvet and silk, soft and warm, take this as a model. Covered that way your child can continue to grow well “outside”.

As you can read in this book, the placenta not only nourished the child in the womb, it is also a powerful healing agent for mother and child after birth. It is reassuring that there have always been parents who - presumably through conversations with midwives or like-minded people - give a lot of thought to what should happen to the organ after birth. Some bury it more or less secretly very deep in their own garden - others invite people to a ritual at the christening and plant a tree together with family and friends to match the shape of the placenta or the child’s name, such as an apple tree of the same name for the boy Jonathan. Others prepare a homeopathic medicine themselves, some have it professionally made, others eat a piece raw - read about the healing power of the placenta in this book and then understand that there really is power in it!

So, this piece of “human flesh” is actually more important after the birth of the child than you might think. The two experts Sophia Johnson and Jana Pastuschek have succeeded in writing a book with a refreshing yet factual vocabulary that opens up scientifically confirmed new horizons for the placenta - the gory chunk of power after the birth of a child.

I hope that the book will become specialist literature for midwives and obstetrics, and that it will be an exciting read for parents-to-be, enabling them to make well-informed decisions about what they consider to be right for them with regard to the placenta after birth.

Ingeborg Stadelmann, June 2023

Introduction to our placenta universe

“Hello Sophia, who’s looking after your children tonight? I’ve just had a call from the delivery room: The midwives are currently looking after a woman giving birth to her second child, the cervix is fully dilated. It may well be that the placenta will be born in an hour or two. Could you come to the lab?”

This is roughly what a typical call from my colleague and now friend Jana Pastuschek sounds like. Together we have spent the odd night or two at the Placenta Laboratory at Jena University Hospital taking samples from newborn placentas. While the mother’s attention is naturally focused on the newborn after birth, Jana and I find it incredibly exciting to devote ourselves to the “miracle organ of pregnancy”, the placenta.

But that wasn’t always the case ...

During my medical studies, the placenta was only mentioned as a side issue in the lectures on gynecology. It was only after the birth of my daughter that my husband surprised me by asking me whether he should make my placenta into capsules, as this would supposedly support healing in the postpartum period. He is half American and had already heard about the trend in the USA. However, I didn’t know anything about it until then and rejected his suggestion. But my interest was piqued, so a few months later I knocked on the door of the placenta laboratory in Jena: “Have you ever heard of placenta as a remedy?” And so, my scientific work on this topic began.

All beginnings are dusty, because it is well known that exciting experiments are preceded by literature research. I spent a lot of time in libraries and sometimes had more than seventy-year-old, porous, typewritten pages of doctoral theses on placenta as a remedy in my hands. The further my research took me, the clearer it became to me: placenta is known to be an effective remedy in the various integrative medical systems such as homeopathy, anthroposophical medicine and traditional Chinese medicine.

I was then faced with the challenge of combining knowledge about the traditional use of the placenta with the modern fundamentals of research in obstetrics. Placenta as a remedy has not yet arrived in today’s scientific world. There are only a few researchers worldwide who are working intensively on this topic, and one of them doesn’t live in Las Vegas or Buffalo, but just around the corner: Jana Pastuschek.

“... I must have looked quite funny when Sophia knocked on the door of the laboratory and asked openly whether we had ever heard of the placenta as a remedy. I had been a research assistant at the placenta lab for five years at that point. The lab had even been in existence for decades. And yet neither I nor any of my colleagues had ever heard of it. Exciting, I thought, formidable topic, charismatic woman, coffee cup just full - so let’s hear all the ideas floating around in the air and space.

At the time, there was too little (current) literature and studies for a theoretical doctoral thesis on the subject. And in my opinion, you can only research a placenta if you have held it in your own hands and felt its strength and power. As a biologist, I know that research is often laborious and time-consuming and that funding for it is virtually non-existent or has to be acquired at great expense with expertise in the respective field. Experiments and studies have to be planned within a feasible framework. Until sufficiently valid results are obtained, it is often a frustrating path that can be accompanied by a number of setbacks.

None of this deterred Sophia. We asked each other questions, planned experiments, looked for scientific supporters and cooperation partners, wrote an ethics application, started a crowdfunding campaign, raised more money than we had hoped for, educated midwives, asked expectant mothers to donate their placenta and got started: no matter what time of day, whether at the weekend or on a public holiday. We were delighted with every call and gratefully accepted the placentas donated to us. These, just like their babies, are not only born between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m., but of course around the clock. And so, this one afternoon of getting to know each other has turned into many hours, days and nights, weeks and months and now even more than eight years of joint research and friendship. What gives us strength to this day and often keeps us euphoric is our fascination with the miracle of the placenta: holding the source of human life in our hands, warm and fresh, and occasionally being able to listen to the child’s first life-affirming cries at the same time.”

Every placenta is unique. The development of this organ began around 140 million years ago because it gave newborns a better chance of survival. A relatively large placenta with a connection to the uterus, which supplies food and oxygen and removes metabolic products, enabled mammals to allow the unborn child to mature longer in the protected womb. A lot has happened since the development of the “primordial placenta”, and it is now one of the organs with the greatest evolutionary diversity among animal species. For example, mice naturally have mouse placentas, elephants naturally have elephant placentas and humans have a human placenta.

Animal experiments cannot always be avoided in research. However, if we want to know something about human pregnancy, we can do so almost exclusively with human placentas. With a theoretical availability of almost 400 tons of placental tissue per year in Germany alone, this should not be a problem. (For those interested in numbers: In 2022, there were 739,000 newborns, multiplied by 500 grams of average placental weight, that’s 369,500 kilograms of placental tissue.) So, without using or killing animals for our research, we can learn a lot about pregnancy and birth. As a nice karmic side effect, animal testing is automatically reduced.

But this is only possible thanks to the donations from the mothers. We authors would therefore like to take the opportunity to say thank you to the children and mothers for their gifts! We also appreciate the valuable cooperation between research and obstetrics and want to say thank you to the midwives who love their profession, even if external conditions are making this increasingly difficult.

For many birth attendants, the use of placenta is nothing new: Cornelia Enning wrote a book about the placenta (“Placenta – gift of life”) back in 2003 - based on her experience as a midwife for many years. Of course, perspectives change according to the professional background. And so, we will take a look at this topic from a medical and a scientific perspective. It is important to remember that research sometimes develops at a rapid pace. Today we cannot prove scientifically how or if the placenta acts as a remedy, perhaps because we do not yet have the methods to do so. But maybe we will know more in fifty years’ time. However, the Chinese physician Li Shizhen wrote as early as the 16th century that “(Placenta) is outstanding… Even the stupid will achieve effects when they use it.” The experience gathered over years and centuries is not imaginary, but empirical. But there are also very loud, critical voices in the scientific debate about placenta as a remedy, and we would like to counter these with our clearly presented results. In our society, we would like to exclude as many risks as possible, and so the potential danger of placenta as a remedy is in the air. But conversely, could we also ask what risks arise for mother and child from not taking it? The experience of midwives shows: Women use their own placenta in the postpartum period - for example, a small piece pureed raw in a smoothie, or dried and processed into capsules or homeopathic medicine – and benefit from it, regardless of how significant the data is.

Every woman can and may do what she wants with her own placenta: leave it in the clinic, eat it as Bolognese, donate it for placenta research, process it into homeopathic medicine or bury it with dignity. Apart from a few obvious social rules (for example, that you shouldn’t bury the placenta in a public park and leave the umbilical cord sticking out), the mother can decide what happens to the placenta. And at this moment it is not just about benefits or risks, but also about the woman’s right to make self-determined decisions that affect only her personally, her own body and the organ that has grown in her womb together with the child. Every woman experience pregnancy, birth and the puerperium individually - and sometimes there is also a story about the placenta. That is why we have also given mothers a voice in this book, who gratefully share their own experiences with the placenta with us.

Unfortunately, the bubble of science rarely lands on public ground. What is discussed in English-language scientific publications often does not reach the women who are really interested in it. Sometimes it takes decades for the results of research to be incorporated into clinical or medical practice. We would like to present what we have found out, discussed and thought through during our joint research work here in an abridged and comprehensible form so that interested women can use this knowledge and make an informed decision for themselves. But we have also explained a lot of information in detail for birth companions such as midwives, doulas or obstetricians - those who find it too specific in individual cases are welcome to leaf through it. However, our book should not be confused with a guide to placenta consumption or therapy, as we lack the clinical experience for this.

But: For the one or other interested father who wants to really spoil his wife in the postpartum period, there are of course step-by-step instructions for a fresh fruit smoothie with a small piece of placenta and other recipe ideas in the appendix. Cheers!

Field report by Andrea

The result in advance: I would do it again. In retrospect you never know what really caused which effects. But after the birth of my first son, I probably had something like a “mild depressive phase”. At least friends tried to make me aware of this possibility from time to time, although I thought that slight dips in mood and a rather frequent lack of motivation were nothing that could be described as “depressive”. People also tend to sugarcoat or romanticize everything that happened in the past. If it hadn’t been for the second birth, I would not have realized that everything can look completely different. Thanks to a friend who had taken a course on processing placenta and wanted me to benefit from her knowledge, I was able to experience ingesting my placenta this time. A few hours after the birth, my friend was at home instructing my husband on how to process the placenta. Cut into thin strips, the placenta is dried for many hours in the oven at a low temperature, while my husband went to the pharmacy in search of one hundred and forty gelatin capsules and I enjoyed a fresh piece of placenta in the form of a fruit smoothie for dinner. So, I can’t say anything about the taste of the placenta. It was lost in the pureed wild berries. The fact is that my involution (the shrinking of the uterus after childbirth) progressed so quickly that the doctors were always amazed when they felt for the “upper edge of the uterus”, and I had no problems at all with milk production.

In the meantime, my husband had found the gelatin capsules and processed the dried placenta strips into a fine powder, which was then painstakingly filled into the capsules. My friend explained to me that I should now take these capsules every day during the postpartum period and beyond. I was open to everything and just wanted to see what happened. I can’t say for sure whether this was due to the much easier second birth and my joy about it or whether the placenta had an effect. In any case, I think it’s worth mentioning that despite a chronic lack of sleep (only four hours at night and thirty minutes during the day for a long period of time), I was in an incredibly good mood, almost euphoric, also because, contrary to my expectations based on my experiences of the first birth, I was doing really well and was able to do enjoy my day. As far as milk production was concerned, I could actually observe a connection with the placenta intake. During the first weeks after birth, I took two capsules a day, but I quickly had to reduce this to one capsule daily as my milk production had increased rapidly. Looking back, I can’t say for how long I actually took the capsules. In any case, they ran out at some point and I think it’s a shame that I don’t still have some in reserve or that the placenta is only so “small” that I couldn’t conjure up more products from it, because, as I have already read in many places, they can be used in many different ways - not only for the mother, but also for the child.

The placenta: miracle organ and all-rounder

We live in a world in which everything is in motion and flux, a constant change between polarities: sun - moon, day - night, mountain - valley, joy - sorrow ... and of course in the opposites of the very essential moments in life: birth and death. With the beginning of a new life, with the birth of a child, we also say goodbye to the organ that made pregnancy and birth possible in the first place.

Before we come to the question of whether the placenta is still important for the mother after birth, we would first like to look at its phylogenetic development (that is, its evolutionary history), formation and its tasks during pregnancy: the placenta as an immunological miracle organ, its microbiological peculiarity, the placenta as hormone factory, mouthpiece for environmental influences and female “all-rounder”.

The phylogenetic origin of the placenta

The placenta is fascinating from an evolutionary perspective. The first forms of the placenta originated with the mammals (Mammalia) in the Cretaceous period around 140 million years ago. At this time, the dinosaurs were still populating the earth before they became extinct around 65 million years ago. In terms of phylogeny, the class of mammals branched out into the “Prototheria”, the cloacal animals, which include the still living platypus and the echidna, as well as the “Theria”. The Theria developed further into marsupials such as wombats, kangaroos and koalas on the one hand and into the higher mammals on the other.

Cloacal animals lay eggs, marsupials give birth to living offspring. Both already have a small, simple yolk-sac placenta, which in marsupials already serves to connect the embryo with the mother and provide nutrients. Gestation periods are still relatively short and the offspring are very small at birth, which makes months of further maturation and growth in the pouch necessary.

At 125 million years old, Eomaia (“mother of the dawn”) is the oldest known fossil of higher mammals with a placenta. Higher mammals make up 94% of all mammal species living today and one of them is our human species. What they all have in common is a comparatively large and complex placenta connected to the uterus, which supplies the embryo or fetus with food and oxygen and removes waste products. The placenta enables a longer maturation and growth period for the offspring in the protected womb.

It used to be assumed that there was a hierarchical higher development of the species and also of the placenta. According to this idea, humans with their human placenta were at the top. Today we know that this is not the case. The human placenta is no more highly developed in evolutionary terms than the placenta of horses, cows or dogs. What is more important is that each type of placenta fulfills all functional requirements in order to produce a newborn that is optimally developed for the subsequent independent life of the respective species.

Placenta basics