The Placenta: Physiology, Practice, and Why It Still Matters
The placenta is one of the most misunderstood parts of pregnancy and birth.
It’s grown for nine months, works harder than almost any other organ in the body, and then — moments after birth — it’s often rushed away, labelled as waste, and forgotten.
This is a piece about what the placenta actually is, what happens to it after birth, why so many mammals consume it, how humans have honoured it historically, and what people today might choose to do — practically and ritually — once their baby is born.
Nothing here is about obligation.
It’s about understanding.
What Is the Placenta, Really?
Physiologically, the placenta is extraordinary.
It forms from the same fertilised egg as the baby. It carries the baby’s DNA. It is not “the mother’s organ” in the way a liver or kidney is — it’s a shared, temporary organ grown by both mother and baby together.
Its jobs include:
Oxygen exchange
Nutrient delivery
Waste removal
Hormone production (including progesterone, oestrogen, hCG)
Immune protection
Acting as a selective barrier between maternal and fetal blood
By the end of pregnancy, the placenta has filtered hundreds of litres of blood every day. It adapts continuously to the baby’s needs. It is responsive, intelligent tissue.
And it has a lifespan of about nine months.
What Happens After the Baby Is Born?
After the baby is born, the placenta doesn’t stop working immediately.
With physiological birth, the uterus continues to contract. The placenta detaches naturally from the uterine wall and is born — usually within 5 to 60 minutes.
During this time:
Blood continues to pulse through the umbilical cord
Oxygenated blood is still being transferred to the baby
The baby’s circulatory system completes its transition to independent breathing
This is where delayed cord clamping matters.
Delayed Cord Clamping: What’s Actually Happening
When the cord is left intact until it stops pulsing, up to one third of the baby’s total blood volume is transferred from the placenta into the baby.
This additional blood supports:
Higher iron stores
Better circulatory stability
Improved oxygen delivery
Increased stem cell transfer
From a physiological point of view, delayed cord clamping isn’t an “extra” — it’s the completion of birth.
Stem Cells and the Placenta
Placental blood (often referred to as cord blood) contains a high concentration of haematopoietic stem cells — the cells responsible for forming blood and immune systems.
These stem cells:
Support tissue repair
Play a role in immune development
Are part of why delayed cord clamping has measurable long-term benefits
Once the cord is clamped and cut, that exchange ends. What remains in the placenta is tissue that has already completed its function.
Which brings us to the question many parents ask next.
What Do People Do With the Placenta?
Historically, humans didn’t treat the placenta as disposable.
Across cultures, placentas were:
Buried under trees
Returned to land or water
Kept close to the family home
Used medicinally
Consumed
Marked with ritual
The common thread wasn’t belief — it was recognition. Something had sustained life. It deserved a conscious ending.
In modern birth settings, people now choose from several options.
Placentophagy: Consuming the Placenta
Placentophagy simply means eating the placenta.
Almost all mammals do this instinctively. Humans are the outlier — largely because birth moved out of the home and into institutions.
Historically, human placentophagy appears in:
Traditional Chinese medicine
Parts of Africa
Southeast Asia
Indigenous practices worldwide
Reasons given were practical, not symbolic:
Replenishing nutrients lost in birth
Supporting recovery
Supporting lactation and mood
Avoiding attracting predators (in mammals)
What About Modern Research?
Human research on placentophagy is limited and mixed.
Some small studies suggest possible hormonal effects depending on preparation methods, particularly with encapsulation. Other studies show no significant impact. There is no strong evidence either proving or disproving benefits.
What matters most in practice is this:
Experiences vary
Preparation methods vary
Bodies vary
Placentophagy is not a requirement. It is a choice.
How Placentas Are Consumed Today
People who choose placentophagy do so in different ways:
Raw or lightly cooked, usually shortly after birth
Encapsulated, dried and taken over weeks postpartum
In broths or stews, often combined with warming foods
As tinctures, sometimes kept for later life stages
Each method carries different practical and cultural meanings. None are mandatory.
A Simple Placenta Preparation (Traditional Style)
If you prefer something grounded and uncomplicated, many cultures used variations of this:
Slice a small piece of placenta
Gently sauté with warming spices (ginger, garlic)
Add to a broth with vegetables
Consume within the first days postpartum
This isn’t about flavour. It’s about nourishment.
Alternatively add a small amount of raw placenta to your favourite smoothie and consume raw. You can also make several placenta smoothies and store any that you will not have that day in the freezer and defrost as and when you need them.
Ritual Without Abstraction
Not everyone wants to eat their placenta. Many people still want to mark its role.
A simple ritual might be:
Sitting quietly with it after birth
Asking to see it and have its parts explained to you by your midwife.
Naming what it carried, protected, and completed
Burying it somewhere meaningful
No performance. No script. Just acknowledgement.
Why This Still Matters
When birth is rushed, managed, and fragmented, the placenta often disappears from the story.
But the placenta tells the story of pregnancy better than almost anything else. It shows how the baby lived, adapted, and was supported.
Honouring it — through knowledge, choice, or ritual — isn’t about being alternative.
It’s about not pretending that something so essential never existed.
Working With an Independent Midwife in Sussex & Kent
As an independent midwife supporting families across Sussex and Kent, my work centres on physiology, choice, and continuity of care.
That includes:
Supporting physiological third stage
Delayed cord clamping
Informed discussions about the placenta
Space for both practical and personal decisions after birth
If you’d like to explore this topic more deeply, these are some thoughtful, evidence-based and experience-led resources I often recommend.
Physiology & Evidence-Based Birth
World Health Organization (WHO)
Delayed Umbilical Cord Clamping for Improved Maternal and Infant Health
Clear, accessible guidance on the benefits of delayed cord clamping.Evidence Based Birth®
In-depth articles on delayed cord clamping, placentophagy, and third stage physiology, written in plain language with transparent sourcing.Royal College of Midwives (RCM)
Resources on physiological third stage and placenta management within UK maternity care.
Placenta, Culture & Meaning
Dr Robin Lim (Bumi Sehat Foundation)
Midwife, humanitarian, and educator who speaks and writes about placenta practices, birth as community knowledge, and culturally rooted care.Ina May Gaskin
Spiritual Midwifery
One of the earlier Western texts to openly discuss placentas, ritual, and embodied birth knowledge without separating them from physiology.Michel Odent
Writings on the physiology of birth and the hormonal ecology surrounding labour, third stage, and early bonding.
Placentophagy & Postnatal Recovery
Young et al., 2017 & 2018
Human placentophagy studies often cited in discussions around benefits and limitations. Useful for understanding where evidence is currently thin and where claims are overstated.
Podcasts & Listening
The Midwives’ Cauldron Podcast
Conversations on physiology, tradition, and modern midwifery practice.The Birthful Podcast
Episodes on delayed cord clamping, postpartum recovery, and evidence-based care.
Birth research is constantly evolving. Many practices around the placenta sit at the intersection of physiology, culture, and personal experience. Evidence matters — and so does context.
