12/02/2025
Consuming the placenta is becoming more popular—whether taken plain, blended into a smoothie, or encapsulated. But here’s why I won’t be eating my placenta (even as a semi-crunchy mom and doula):
-The placenta filters waste and toxins while your baby develops. This is FAR from a perfect analogy, but on an intuitive level, it wouldn’t make sense to take a used water or air filter, blend it up, and drink it in a smoothie.
-God designed the placenta to be expelled from the body after birth. With the exception of banking one’s own blood before a major surgery, I can’t think of another bodily excretion we as humans would intentionally put back into our bodies.
-One of the common arguments in favor of placenta consumption is that many, many animals consume theirs. But humans are not animals, and animals are not our standard of behavior. We are made in the image of God and have a higher level of dignity. Further, there is a simple explanation for much of the placenta consumption we see in animals: predation. The placenta is a very bloody organ, so it makes sense that mothers in the animal kingdom would “clean up” the mess to avoid detection.
-Deuteronomy 28:57. Something interesting I learned recently is that this single direct biblical reference to the placenta (and its consumption) relates the practice to judgement and desperation. To be clear, this verse is NOT a direct command not to eat the placenta, and we as Christians are not under the ceremonial law of the Old Testament. But I think it’s interesting that the practice is cast in an unfavorable light.
Lily Bloom Birth offers birth and postpartum doula services locally (Jackson, TN area) and virtually worldwide, as well as childbirth education.
Now booking 2026 clients. DM to set up your complementary consultation!
