Pure Life Placenta

07/01/2025

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During pregnancy, something quietly extraordinary happens inside a mother’s body.
Tiny fetal cells—belonging to the baby—begin to cross into the mother’s bloodstream. They don’t stop there. They travel through her body, nestling into her tissues, her bones, even her brain. This process is called fetal-maternal microchimerism, and it’s nothing short of miraculous.
For 9 months, these cells move back and forth—mother to baby, baby to mother. And after birth? They stay.
Decades later, those cells can still be found in a mother’s body, forming a kind of invisible bond—etched in her very biology. Scientists have found fetal cells embedded in a mother’s heart, where they rush to help heal after injury. Some settle in her brain. Others help restore tissue or strengthen her immune system.
Even in pregnancies that don’t reach full term, the baby leaves a part of themselves behind. A cellular imprint. A silent love note, woven into the mother’s DNA.
Maybe that’s why so many mothers feel their children, even when they’re far away. Maybe that’s why a mom’s intuition so often rings true.
Your child was never just in your arms—they’re part of your heart, your skin, your memory. And long after the world stops seeing you as “expecting,” your body still carries the quiet echo of motherhood.
Science has just begun to explain it. But every mother has always known it.

~Weird Pictures and News

05/09/2025

10 Golden Rules for Visiting a Newborn 👶✨

Visiting a newborn is exciting, but let’s do it right! Here’s how to be the best guest ever:

💡 Before You Visit:
✔ Give parents time to settle in – Don’t rush over right after birth. Let them invite you!
✔ Ask if they need anything – Instead of just showing up, bring food, groceries, or essentials.

💡 During Your Visit:
🧼 Wash your hands & skip the kisses – Babies have delicate immune systems!
🔕 Silence your phone & avoid loud noises – Let’s keep the peace for the little one.
🚫 No surprise visits – Always check if it’s a good time before heading over.
👀 Don’t expect to hold the baby – Some parents aren’t comfortable with it, and that’s okay!
🙌 Help, don’t just visit – Fold laundry, wash dishes, or play with older siblings. Small gestures go a long way!
🤍 Be mindful of the mom – Avoid comments about her body or unsolicited advice. Support is better than opinions.

💡 After Your Visit:
⏳ Keep it short & sweet – 30-60 minutes is enough unless they want you to stay longer.
📩 Check in later – A kind message means more than a long visit!

Let’s make those first days easier for new parents! 🍼💕

03/30/2025

Love this! Women, whose milk lacks oxytocin because of toxemia or a stressful birth, can easily and safely replenish their oxytocin reserves with the rich deposits found in the placenta.
“Progesterone, estrogen, and placental lactogen, as well as prolactin, cortisol, and insulin, appear to act in concert to stimulate the growth and development of the milk-secreting apparatus.”[1] Not only does the placenta contain orally-active prolactin, but consuming placental prolactin also boosts the production of prolactin from the pituitary and ovarian secretion sites.[2]
[1] Cunningham F, Leveno KJ, Bloom SL, Hauth JC, Rouse DJ, Spong CY. eds. Williams Obstetrics, 23e. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2010.
[2] Blank Ms, Friesen Hg. “Effects of Placentophagy On Serum Prolactin and Progesterone Concentrations In Rats After Parturition Or Superovulation.” Journal of Reproductive Fertility 60(2), 1980, pp273-8.

03/30/2025

Let’s talk about feedings!🤱🍼⁣⁣
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⁣🚼It’s perfectly okay to follow your baby’s lead, instead of the clock to determine how often you should feed your baby. ⁣
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🕰Most babies will be ready to eat approximately every 1-3 hours (breastmilk) & every 2-4 hours (formula) for the first 3-4 months. ⁣This is outside of cluster feeding. ⁣
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🤱If your newborn baby is sleepy & not waking to eat, you may need to wake them up to eat. Your baby’s healthcare provider can help you determine if this is necessary.
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📆There may be days that your baby eats more frequently & days they eat less frequently. ⁣
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💯Though your baby may develop a more predictable feeding routine around 3-4 months, growth spurts and developmental leaps can continue to effect your baby’s hunger. ⁣
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💁‍♀️It’s normal to not be sure whether your baby is tired or hungry. Be kind to yourself & trust yourself to figure it out. You’ve got this! ⁣
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👇🏼Comment below⁣ how old your babe is & what signs of hunger you’ve noticed in them. Your tips may help another mama out! ⁣

📸 simplywell.baby

03/02/2025

Your womb must carry babies 🙏

02/11/2025

People often claim we have limited research done on placental consumption, when actually there is a great body of medical literature spanning over 100 years. For example this study from 1917 found that "the percentage of protein and lactose contained in breast milk increased after ingestion of desiccated placenta."
Hammett F S, Mcneile L G. The Effect Of The Ingestion Of Desiccated Placenta On The
Variations In The Composition Of Human Milk During The First Eleven Days After
Parturition. J Biol Chem. 1917;30:145–153.

02/11/2025

Dr. Michel Odent, in his book Primal Health: Understanding the Critical Period Between Conception and the First Birthday writes this of prostaglandins:
Prostaglandins are able to dilate the small blood vessels, thus lowering blood pressure. They inhibit the proliferation of cells of the smooth muscles which are in the vessel walls, so having an action on their calibre. Prostaglandins 1 inhibit the aggregation of the type of white blood cells called platelets; when the platelets bunch up together and clog the blood vessels there is a risk of thrombosis. They inhibit the synthesis of cholesterol, and help to halt the inflammatory process. They play an important role in the thymus, and their action on the maturation of T lymphocytes is comparable to that of thymic hormones.”
Dr. Odent believes the treatment of newborns affects their hormone secretions, which in turn affects their neurological and immune systems for the rest of their lives. In his work he also states, “It is not hard to imagine therefore that problems with the synthesis of prostaglandins 1 can have several consequences. In fact, this is what is happening to the newborn baby who is separated from its mother; the high level of cortisol blocks the synthesis of prostaglandins, particularly series 1, and the low level of melatonin cannot compensate for this. It is precisely this imbalance between the different prostaglandins which characterizes most of the diseases of civilization.”
-Odent, Michel. Primal Health: Understanding the Critical Period Between Conception and the First Birthday. Clairview Books, 200

01/26/2025

The birth of the placenta is part of a complex process that begins before the baby is born. Oxytocin is released by the posterior pituitary gland during labor to regulate contractions. It is a key birthing/bonding hormone and plays a significant role in facilitating effective contractions. As the birth of the baby nears, high levels of oxytocin circulate in the mother’s blood which create strong uterine contractions. After the birth of the baby, the contraction pattern is interrupted because the uterus is suddenly emptied and must contract down to its pre-pregnancy size. The placenta drains its full blood volume to the baby which reduces its overall volume.
After a resting phase of about two minutes, contractions should resume and come every three to four minutes.[1] Anne Frye has observed, “The uterus generally has resting-phase contractions for about twice as long as the length of time between the final pushing contractions before birth. For example, if the last several pushing contractions were about five minutes apart, expect the first noticeable ‘placental’ contraction to occur about ten minutes after birth.”[2] The post birth contractions allow the uterus to further contract to expel the placenta, and after that, to reposition and reconstitute the uterus to its pre-pregnancy size. The first of these contractions will dislodge the placenta from its attachment site in the uterine wall. This happens as the eight- to ten-inch surface area of the uterine-placental attachment reduces in size by creating multiple folds, while the size of the placenta stays the same.[3] As the placenta sheers away from the uterus, the blood vessels of this highly vascular organ are exposed. The mother will bleed between the time that the placental attachment site is exposed and when contractions have shrunk the surface area of the uterus enough to suture off the exposed vessels. This is the only point in birth when blood is a part of the normal physiology and not an indication of complication.
Instinctive mother-baby interactions stimulate further oxytocin release and thus resulting in additional contractions.
These interactions involve smell, touch (skin-to-skin), taste, and sound. Breastfeeding immediately after the baby is born also increases oxytocin. If allowed to, the baby ‘crawls’ on the mother’s abdomen in order to nurse; his feet will stimulate her uterus to contract. The placenta is thus compressed, and the blood in the intervillious spaces (the interface between mother’s blood system and the placenta/baby’s blood system) is forced back into the spongy layer of the decidua (uterine lining). Retraction of the uterine muscle fibers constrict the blood vessels supplying the placenta, preventing blood from draining back through the maternal vascular tree. This congestion results in the veins rupturing and the villi shearing off the uterine wall. A clot forms behind the placenta. The non-elastic placenta is unable to remain attached and peels away, usually starting from the middle. At this point, you may notice a small gush of blood as the placenta separates and the umbilical cord lengthens as the placenta moves downwards and is birthed.
[1] Dunn P. “The Placental Venous Pressure During and After the Third Stage Of Labor Following Early Cord Ligation.” Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology of The British Commonwealth, 73(5); 747-756, 1966
[2] Frye, Anne. Holistic Midwifery: A Comprehensive Textbook for Midwives In Homebirth Practice. Vol II. Labrys Press, 2006, pp 509
[3] Yao Ac, Et Al. “Placental Transfusion-Rate and Uterine Contraction.” Lancet, 1(7539) 1968, pp 380-3.

01/24/2025

Amazingly, the placenta is the only organ compatible with two sets of blood types and genes. The placenta also passes on the mother’s antibodies to the baby in order to keep the baby healthy for several months after birth. If the mother has acquired a natural immunity to a virus or disease, the antibodies that her body has created will be transferred to the baby via the placenta. This is the traditionally understood concept of ‘herd immunity’ operating naturally.
The fetus also contributes to the mother in surprising and unique ways.
Research is finding an association between a migration of fetal cells into the mother's system and a reduced risk of cancer; these facts are consistent with research on how mother’s life-spans extend with each pregnancy.
Scientists are currently exploring the “exciting possibility that persistence of fetal cells in maternal tissue play a role in immune surveillance for cancer cells.”[1]
Simply put— each child a mother carries may produce cells that actively scan for conditions that threaten the mother.
The active migration of fetal cells into the mother begins in the first trimester. Detection of fetal DNA in maternal blood is an innovation in non-invasive prenatal genetic and fetal s*x diagnosis that is currently being implemented across the US, so doctors may be able to tell the s*x of future pregnancies with a simple blood sample! A mother literally has cells from every child (post 10+ weeks) she has conceived (aborted, miscarried, or successfully delivered); they are literally a part of her.
“As surprising as this intimate juxta positioning of maternal and fetal cells is in the uterus, equally unexpected is the fact that fetal cells traffic into the maternal blood, lodge within maternal organs and, in some women, persist for decades.”[2]
[1-2] Helen Kay, D. Michael Nelson, and Yuping Wang. The Placenta: From Development to Disease. Wiley-Blackwell, 2011.

01/24/2025

The newborn adjusting to the world outside the womb is a major physiological undertaking. The infant’s lungs, digestive tract, liver, and kidney filtration systems all begin operations for the first time, as the placenta had previously done their jobs. The additional blood from the placenta and cord provide the blood volume needed to jump-start these systems.
Perhaps the most critical of the physiological tasks is the diversion of the baby’s blood out of the umbilical cord and placenta and into the pulmonary system (the lungs etc.). The blood from the placenta ebbs into the baby’s abdomen with each contraction and flows back out slightly between contractions; this is why gravity is helpful to facilitate the maximum transfer of blood volume. The baby should be held at or ideally lower than the placenta and uterus for the first three minutes after birth. The baby also has a part in regulating the transfer volume to some degree; when the baby cries, it constricts the cord vessels and lessens blood intake.
Some care providers will initiate cord milking, which is a non-invasive way to increase the baby’s oxygenation level and the blood volume that can easily be done by one person. Milking the cord (sometimes referred to as stripping) is when you use gentle pressure along the umbilical cord to draw freshly oxygenated blood from the placenta into the baby's body. The volume left in the umbilical veins, when directed into the body, is significant enough to quickly reach the heart, and the increase in intravenous pressure can support the baby’s circulatory system function.

01/13/2025

What are the amazing substances that exist in the placenta in an orally-active form? The placenta is full of minerals such as calcium, magnesium, potassium, sodium, and phosphate, along with trace elements including copper, zinc, iron, and selenium. Iron and selenium are two particularly important therapeutic trace elements in the postpartum period.
Selenium is a mineral with antioxidant properties that protect cells from damage and may be why placental ingestion is so effective in aiding uterine recovery. With iron, studies show a strong correlation between maternal iron levels and the mother’s experience of depression, stress, and cognitive functioning postpartum.
There are also vitamins, the hormones oxytocin, prostaglandin, prolactin and human placental lactagon (hpl), progesterone, serotonin, corticotropin-releasing hormone, and thyroid-releasing hormone (trh), thyroxine, plus vitamin b6, stem cells and growth factors, indoleamines, and lastly, opioids/ placental opioid-enhancing factor (poef).