6 months pp & my Human placentophagy testimonial

I ate my placenta!
1000 crunchy points awarded to me!
Actually it wasn’t about the status symbol of the shock of it all but for my own health benefits. I consumed my placenta immediately after I delivered my placenta just in case I had any heavy bleeding postpartum. “Oxytocin is a naturally-occurring chemical in the brain that stimulates uterine contractions that lead to the onset of labor. This same chemical also enables the uterus to contract and quickly return to its pre-pregnancy size, as well as slowing postpartum bleeding. Studies have shown that eating the placenta triggers the release of oxytocin into the bloodstream, enabling the uterus to quickly heal and tone itself after childbirth.”

I took it in a smoothie since it was the quickest method after birth. It was cut up an a chunk the size of a quarter was thrown into the blender with juices and fruits and other assorted yummy things. There were chunks of it to where I had bits stuck in my teeth. But thankfully it had no taste and wasn’t that bad.

After a few days the placenta was cut in half. I froze one half of it and then the other half was pureed in a food processor and placed into an ice cube tray. I would take one of the frozen cubes and put it in a smoothie for the first few weeks postpartum.

I can’t say exactly for certain whether it was my unhindered birth that helped me have an easy postpartum time or ingesting my placenta or both but I had an incredibly easy healing recovery time. Pushing only when my body needed to push and allowing the placenta to come out on its own really helped prevent those horrible postpartum contractions. They were virtually non existent. I felt fantastic within days. I went for a WIC check up 2 weeks pp and my iron stores were fantastic.
“Placentophagia may help replenish nutrients lost during childbirth
Human placenta is rich in various essential nutrients such as iron and protein. Placentophagia can help replenish these nutrients, which are often depleted during childbirth due to blood loss. This benefit of placentophagia may be especially important for vegetarian or vegan mothers, who may have slightly lower blood iron levels to begin with. (Many animals also practice placentophagia, presumably for this reason.)”

About 4 months postpartum a doula friend of mine encapsulated my placenta for me. As soon as she gave me the pills I immediately took one, I hadn’t taken any of my placenta since that first month. By the next day my breasts were bursting with milk. I was very full and needed to pump. The burst of milk was temporary and curbed down by the end of the following day but it was very noticeable. I took another pill a few weeks later when I was just having a hard time in life and feeling depressed and felt a cold coming on and just really not feeling well mind/body/spirit wise. Again, by the next day my breasts were full with milk. I’m not a big fan of galactogogue use and their efficacy, but I’m a big believer in the use of placenta for many benefits. It was the right decision for me.

My birth story

Well I meant to be more involved with this blog but it didn’t work out how I planned. Just to much going on already being in school full time, homeschooling, and taking care of a household and 2 kids. Plus I’m just a slacker.

My birth story is a story that spans over the course of a about a week. The week before my estimated due date my 2 year old son Finn came down with what appeared to be a mild upper respiratory infection and he became very clingy and nursing a lot again. At the peak point of his illness he was asking for water a lot during the night and constantly waking me up and nursing and I had to keep getting up out of bed to get him water and I kept pulling ligament muscles and just woke up the next day feeling so sore.

It was 4 days away from my EDD and I just kept feeling mild cramps all day and was just very uncomfortable. By the time night time hit I was having irregular uncomfortable contractions. My boyfriend, Joshua, got home after a 12 hour shift about 9pm and I told him I thought I was in labor but wasn’t sure because my contractions were very irregular. So I sat on the yoga ball and that helped a lot and Joshua and the kids all went to sleep. My contractions got more uncomfortable so I drew myself a nice hot bath to help cope with the pain. It helped a lot, which made me more confused about what was going on if my contractions could go away. I ended up spending about 4 hours in the bath tub because I was so uncomfortable and it was the best pain relief option. Finally around 6am the contractions completely stopped and I was able to rest and get some sleep.

I woke up feeling really frustrated about what was going on and sought out help from friends and came to the realization that I was probably suffering through some prodromal labor. Joshua had gone to work for the day so I did my best to take care of the kids on the little sleep I had. As the day progressed on the uncomfortable painful contractions continued. They did end up stopping before bedtime so I managed to get some sleep at the end of the 2nd day but Finn had suddenly changed his entire personality and was stuck on my breasts nursing all night to the point if i even attempted to unlatch him he would flail around violently screaming to nurse. Nursing him would cause a lot of cramping so it was hard to deal between his meltdowns or my pain.

By the 3rd day of prodromal labor I was starting to loose it. I was breaking down and crying constantly. I spent most of my time in the bath tub. I couldn’t handle taking care of my kids. Finn became even more clingy and wanted me to nurse him and hold him every second of the day. I felt my confidence slipping, I started feeling like my body was failing me. I kept updating with my midwife friends what was going on, hoping they knew something I didn’t and they could tell me I’d give birth any second just so I’d have some hope, but they just basically told me what I already knew, it was still prodromal labor, it was early labor and I was dilating but it wasn’t time yet. I did loose my mucus plug and had a bloody show on the 3rd day which restored some confidence in my body. Judging by the bloody show that meant I had to be dilating to at least 2-3 cm. But the pain was starting to really get to me. I had been suggested to drink some wine to help relax me. I don’t like wine so Joshua got me some hard cider and I took a nice hot epsom salt bath and drank my cider. I felt very relaxed but shortly after, the pain seemed to intensify.

I was getting to the desperation point of contemplating the hospital, or hitting up the local drug dealer for anything.I’ve never smoked anything in my life or ingested marijuana in any way but I attempted to smoke some weed for the first time hoping it would help with my pain relief. I took 2 hits, and I’m pretty sure I did it wrong because I felt nothing. I know I inhaled it. But maybe not enough? I dont know but that was a bust for me and just left me with awful smelling/tasting breath.
Finn is used to nursing to sleep so I did my best to lie him on the bed and stand over him and nurse him to sleep while i rocked and shook my hips through the contractions. After he finally went to sleep and I spent several more hours shaking my way through contractions in the tub I decided to take one of Joshua muscle relaxers. It helped me feel very relaxed and for a few hours I got some moments of rest until the contractions became so painful again it woke me up.

By day 4 I had reached the point of being unable to leave the bath tub. It was the only place i could get some type of lessening of the pain. I called around and got my friend Nina to come get my kids for the day because I just couldn’t take care of them. I called Joshua and told him how bad it was getting and i can’t handle the kids and we needed to figure something out. He called his friend Kenny to come get the kids to stay the night as soon as Nina would drop them off that afternoon.
When Nina came to pick up the kids I was basically locked in the bathroom sweating, crying, and in the worst pain of my life. My stomach felt like it was contracting so hard tha aftt it was slamming into my hips and they would break at any moment. Once the kids were gone I was finally able to get out of the tub and get some water to drink and go back to the yoga ball. As the hours passed I started to feel so much better I could move around and get something to eat and talk to my sister on the phone for awhile. She mentioned how she had horrible prodromal labor at the end of her pregnancy because she had gotten sick and was severally dehydrated. Then it clicked….I am probably really frickin dehydrated!!! Since Joshua had to mind the kids no one was able to help take care of me while I was stuck in that bathtub so I wasn’t eatting or drinking since I couldnt even move to get a drink. I had drank alcohol which was probably making me dehydrate more and thats why the contractions worsened after I drank. I also think Finn was stressing me out. Everytime I heard him cry or whine or even come near me I got a contraction. So getting rid of the kids and being alone and actually being able to focus on myself and drink some water had helped so much to the point all contractions stopped and I felt normal again.
Nina dropped off my kids and Kenny was there to pick them up and of course Finn wanted to nurse. I got a few contractions again that made me have to sit down. But the kids left quickly and I was able to relax again. I wasn’t able to sit down though. My hips ached so bad that there was no comfortable position other than standing. But I had been in a reclined/seated position for 4 days so i was fine with standing for hours.

5 hours went by and I didn’t have a single contraction and felt good again. Joshua didn’t get off work til 10pm that night after working a 13 hour day. Maybe a little over 15 minutes after he had gotten home I was in the middle of telling him about my awful day when I had to go pee and as I was peeing POP! my water burst and I yelled “OH GOD!” Joshua came running in to check on me and I told him my water broke. The waters were murky brown colored so I was concerned with meconium. Meconium was turned into a big unncessary mess with my son’s birth so it had me worried and doubting myself. Then blood started coming out so I decided to call a midwife friend just for reassurance. I called a wonderful midwife I know named Denise to let her know my water broke and described the fluids and the blood and she reassured me it was just the 2nd bloody show and gave me some guidelines to follow and just said if it was meconium, make sure I give birth in the water. And to check the babies heart rate. I wasn’t having any contractions at this point but my hips were aching so I had Joshua draw me another bath and told him to get the birth pool set up in the living room. He also checked the babies heart rate 3 times and we had an average of 120 BPM so I felt a little bit better.

As I was getting into the tub I felt like I had to poop, and I thought, oh great perfect timing!

While I was in the bath another gush of blood came out and I just started feeling so unprepared. I hadnt researched how much blood was to much and what was normal. I didn’t want to bother Denise, again, so I called my birth friend Tyler who had given birth unassisted twice. She reassured me it was still probably the bloody show. So I then called my birth photographer and let her know my water had broken but I wasn’t having any contractions just yet and I’d keep her updated.
It was now after 10:30pm and after I hung up with Kristin, the birth photographer, I started contracting a bit and started mentally screaming at Joshua to hurry up with the birth pool. Finally it was all ready for me. I told Joshua I was scared. I couldn’t do this. All the prodromal had shaken my confidence and I was terrified. He did his best to reassure me, I dont even remember his reply, all i remember was my fear and my pain. Joshua helped me stand up and I had to go right back in that water. Everything hurt to much. It took a few tries but I got to the living room and in the nice comfy fishy pool.

Joshua pulled a table next to me with our supplies and a big glass of water. I asked him to get a frozen wash rag out of the freezer I had left in there the night before. The contractions started coming on really strong and I had to shake my legs and hips to go through them. Joshua kept trying to ask me questions and I had to just tell him to stop asking me questions and just go with the flow. So he grabbed a chair and sat down next to me.

My contractions quickly escalated and I had to moan and HEE-HOO through them all. They were so intense I had to flail my body all around the birth pool and rock my hips. I kept thinking about how in my Orgasmic Birth book it said that we had to get the baby out the same way it went in. So I would rock and girate my hips the way I would during sex. The frozen washrag was my main sense of comfort through every contraction. The only things I could mutter out were asking for water between each contraction and for Joshua to get me my transition ease tincture. He asked when should he call Kristin? I just muttered, whenever you think.
Everything seemed to go so slow and so fast at the same time. I was moaning away and Joshua called Kristin to come because the baby would be here soon. Joshua sat quietly by my side and watched tv. He got up and left the room and I had a really strong contraction and I felt like I had to take a really huge poop and my ass hurt. I knew the baby was coming soon. A few seconds later I had another contraction and I felt like my ass had exploded and I felt the ring of fire and screamed my head off. I kept screaming and screaming and I heard Joshua come back in the room and jump in the pool saying the heads out! He told me to pushpushpush!!!! I wanted to punch him in the face. I needed a split second rest. I did my best to keep pushing and it seemed like eternity passed by. I screamed and push and screamed and pushed and finally….relief. The baby was out! Joshua was holding up the white vernix covered bloody baby. I took a few breathes and asked….”What is it?!” Joshua said “It’s a girl” Look at her vagina!” He laid her on my chest as I tried to calm myself down. I asked him what time was she born…..It was 12:16am. I was so happy it was over and so happy it had gone quickly. I just wanted to look at my baby and view what a baby looks like fresh from the womb. I never got to experience it before. The vernix was so thick.

Joshua tried to call Kristin but she didn’t answer.
She arrived shortly after Olive was born and as she came in the door Joshua told her it was to late….Kristin was like…ohh HA-HA funny…and then she seen me in the pool, exhausted, holding a baby. I didn’t plan to have her there and me be completely naked splayed open the way I was, but at that point I didn’t care anymore. I was just trying to FINALLY relax.

I lied in that pool waiting for the placenta to come out so we could cut the cord. I started to get cold and Olive, my baby girl, was starting to get cold as well she kept crying. I was also sick of being in water! It took about an hour for the placenta to finally come out. It felt like liver. I handed Joshua Olive so he could cut the cord and as I raised her up to him the Lion King’s CIRCLE OF LIFE played in my head.

He cut the cord and handed me back Olive and he took the placenta into the kitchen. I got a towel and got dried off and put some clothes on and wrapped Olive in a blanket and went to lie down in bed. Joshua cut up a piece of placenta to throw into a placenta smoothie just in case there may be any excessive postpartum bleeding.

Kristin took pictures as we went about our postpartum care. Olive pooped all over me and her so she ended up getting her first sponge bath sooner than I planned. Joshua set up a table next to the bed with everything I would need and we said our Goodbyes to Kristin and settled in to bed with our new baby girl. That night I got one of the best nights sleep ever after giving birth. It was so calm and relaxing. The whole experience was amazing. It didn’t go exactly as I had hoped but I couldn’t have asked for a better birth.

I have a new perspective on birth in so many ways. I now understand why some women take that epidural, or even an induction. I was so contemplating an induction at one point. In a way I am so glad that I didn’t give myself a choice on my birth, I had no back up plan so I was forced to only go this route. To go to a hospital having had no professional prenatal care, obviously being an unassisted pregnancy and birth, I would’ve been treated like shit and been treated like a monster, possibly had CPS called on me. The possibilities of what would happen in a hospital was enough to keep me from heading to that maternity ward.

I feel such pride in myself. Joshua has such pride and respect and admiration for me. I gave birth to my daughter completely alone. I did it. It was all me. I got the healing birth I deserved to have. I wish all mothers could have such an empowering experience.

25 WEEKS…TOMORROW

I just suck at writing. I had all these ideas for my blog and I would help share information and be a guide to others to seek new knowledge in regards to birth, and I fail. Life is so busy and overwhelming with kids at home, homeschooling, going to school full time, and everything else in the world. Life just seems….so intense for everyone right now. But I feel like I NEED some kind of update. I’m not doing a good job of documenting this pregnancy at all other than medically. No pregnancy journal, heck, i still haven’t finished the pregnancy journal from when I was pregnant with my son, let alone get to photo albums and baby books.

So for the inquiring minds who want to know, how is it going in pregnancy and doing all my own prenatal care? Splendid! Thanks for asking. I haven’t done a new set of vitals on myself since October, which I do need to get to, but I’m not in any rush. We’ve finally heard the baby’s heart beat. Invested in a fetoscope so we can listen any time we want, as long as the baby is in a good position. Baby’s heart rate was 150bpm, taken when I was 21 weeks. I weighed myself at 21 weeks as well and I was 114lbs, so I’ve had about a 12 pound weight gain so far. Much different from my first 2 pregnancies. I gained 60lbs each pregnancy and was huge from the start. I don’t know if its just the pregnancy difference, or that i eat better and no fast food at all or what.

I’ve been getting sometimes excruciatingly painful Braxton Hicks contractions going on now for several months. If I’m dehydrated or doing to much on my feet I get them. Only lying flat and rubbing my belly will help, as well as drinking more water. It’s made me have to leave places and go home to lie down sometimes. I’ve also started to develop pregnancy induced carpal tunnel again. I had it bad with my last pregnancy. The pads of my finger tips to my wrists hurt. I really need to get to a chiropractor but I had this weird thing with insurance going on and not sure what my insurance is and to lazy to make a phone call to figure it all out. Baby is hanging out super low and lying on my cervix so I’m having a lot of pelvic/pubic bone area pain and my hips hurt. Chiropractor would be a big help! Get on it Jessica!

The 20 week mark has also come and gone and we have done ZERO ultrasounds on this lil fetus. The risks of an ultrasounds are to great to get one simply to know the genitals of the baby. Ultrasounds are also notoriously inaccurate as well and have falsely identified defects as well as missed major defects, so we’ll just take this child as is. Joshua & I are very excited to find out who this child is once it is born. It just feels so much more exciting and special to have to wait. I look forward to that moment when the fetus is out and we can take a look and officially name our new child.

I’m looking forward to this birth with so much confidence. I just hope by then we will have an official place we can call home! I’m not happy about the idea of birthing inside the apt we live in now and have been at for about 5 years. Hopefully with my next update I can mention we’ve moved finally!

“There are so many lies that have damaged women, and the lies around birth break my heart….what women are told they can’t do…..it doesn’t matter if you had shoulder dystocia before….doesn’t mean you will again….and letting your baby gestate until he is ready to emerge is NOT a dangerous thing to do as long as baby is healthy….and an ultrasound cannot tell you that your placenta is done an
d placentas don’t really expire….and having a previous episiotomy does not mean you can’t birth without tearing ( I did it three times without even a skidmark after a vaginal cesarean) and cervical lips are well…just that..the cervix is anatomically divided into two lips with different composition at the side, lips sometimes swell, true, but we would not know that if we did not have our hands in there exacerbating any problem that MIGHT exist,.the killer cervical lip is a made up idea. and you can have a first baby at home…you do not need to go prove your pelvis at the hospital where they have a big investment in proving it inadequate. Women are told lies about pre eclampsia, gestation diabetes, placenta previa (low lying placenta in early ultrasounds) health or unhealth of baby, all the time……. I understand that we believe what we are told and I understand getting all defensive at the thought that we might have been duped or that we might have let someone else make decisions for us that did not turn out the way we had hoped…..my hospital birth is a classic hospital horror story….a litany of disasters …..but here is the hard part…..disasters of my own making….I did not do the research, I trusted the wrong people, I did not make my own decisions, I went to the hospital for a normal function of biology. I tried to reassign responsibility, but I live with ALL the consequences, and my baby lives with all the consequences…..I was lied to (blood from electronic fetal monitor screwed into eyelid was: YOU HAD SOMETHING SHARP INSIDE YOU HE GOT CAUGHT ON ON THE WAY OUT!)….Your baby is in trouble (when it was the doc who was going to be in trouble with his wife for being late to dinner according to the conversation between the nurses I heard while pretending to be asleep so as to slow down the number of hands going in me….You are too small down there….when doc had just a few months before told me i could have a horse…. your nipples are dirty when they handed me the alcohol swab to clean them before i could put baby to breast…..circumcision doesn’t hurt baby….tell that to my baby who was bloody and mutilated and screaming for days….your breastmilk is not sufficient…here, pump cereal down him (at 10 days of age)…..so I could have bought in to those lies and worn them as a badge of some sort, indicating how unique I am or how unlucky I am or how something or other I am….but I chose to take my ego out of the equation and take responsibility for the whole thing and use my anger and disappointment to determine to make things better for other mothers, and for my future babies….I don’t have to be victimized by the lies…..but once….after that….it is on to truth….birth is safe; interference is risky.” – Carla Hartley

17 Weeks

17 weeks along today. I’ve encountered my 2nd yeast infection. I’m also getting a lot of constant dull headaches across the forehead that nothing seems to help other than caffeine. I don’t consume pop or much caffeine (need peppermint essential oils!)  so I don’t like this habit of needing a can of pop every few days to get rid of the headaches. So of course I’m having problems staying hydrated. I’m doing my best to drink lots of water and medicinal pregnancy teas now. It is so easy to get dehydrated when pregnant, the dehydration was causing a lot of Braxton Hicks like contraction pains. So whenever I feel pains like that, it’s more than likely because I am dehydrated.

 

Using garlic to treat the yeast infection. http://www.midwiferytoday.com/articles/garlic.asp

 

I am lucky enough to have a great community in my area for home-births, last week i attended a home birth meeting https://www.facebook.com/groups/479093008783555/ and discussed a lot with my fellow first time homebirthers, as well as veterans, and of course midwives. Since I was there and a midwife friend had her kit with her I went ahead and did some of the first real prenatal care so far. I had my blood pressure checked. 120/64. Great. Tested my hemoglobin levels. 12.5 . Great. Then tested my urine and I had slight protein (which can be normal), pretty dehydrated (crap i knew that), and my ph acidity was HORRIBLE! explains the yeast infection. Almost half way in and have done very little care, other than taking basic care of myself and eating well, need to increase my water intake, but everything is going very smoothly and well with performing my own prenatal care.

14 weeks

I’ve finally entered my second trimester of pregnancy and I got to tell ya, its pretty boring finding out you’re pregnant 14 DPO and then not seeking any prenatal care outside of myself. Hard to “feel” pregnant. Although the pangs of a growing fetus and the fact that I’ve felt the baby fluttering around in there since I was 10 weeks along helps.

I haven’t found the time or the energy to blog on further topics, although I have many ideas on what to write about, but there was an occurrence today that bothered me and I needed to rant about it.

I attended a wedding today of a former nursing school classmate friend of mine. There were 2 other former friends from nursing school that attended as well. We were at the table with 2 of them, one is pregnant and several weeks ahead of me and has never gotten a nursing job after school, and the other is working as a nurse in a plastic surgery clinic. My boyfriend, Joshua, was making conversation and proudly boasted how we were doing a home birth.

The plastic surgery nurse was obviously shocked and just said, “Wow, you’re very brave.”

And made some comments about not being able to birth without the medications. I just replied that I’m not brave, I’m just educated and spoke of how wonderful birth feels unmedicated and how horrible my hospital experiences were.

When the pregnant nurse friend sat down, plastic surgery nurse says, “She’s having a home birth!”

Pregnant nurse says, “Yeah I know (bride nurse) told me.” In a disappointed tone of voice.

Then she proceeded to tell me how crazy I am and doesn’t get why I’d do a home birth. I just again said I’m educated I know what I am doing and tried to let the subject drop, as confrontations are not something I feel like dealing with as an emotionally unstable pregnant lady.

I realized it was time to leave to get back to my kids and as I leaned in to hug plastic surgery nurse she said, “Please go to a hospital.”

  I said, “I’m not going to a hospital, a home birth is much safer than a hospital.”

Pregnant nurse friend says, ” At least go see a nurse or something.” 

I said, ” I am a nurse.”

Pregnant nurse friend says, ” yeah but see a real one with a real nursing job.”

I just turned and walked out the door really pissed off and was about to cry because I’m pregnant and emotional. But I just could not believe the nerve of people who don’t even have the knowledge to speak on a subject and try and tell me what to do with myself and my unborn child and that my choices are wrong. I hope they would never speak to patients like that, but I bet I’m wrong. Where is this Patient’s Bill of Rights and the Right of Informed Consent we were taught? Knowledge and rights are based on what a nurse knows? Or what they don’t know? But I particularly find it insulting to make comments like this to me when I specifically work and am in school for the field of birth and breastfeeding. Ohh so that 1 class we all took together for OB in nursing school makes you so much more knowledgeable about my birth than all the education I’ve taken upon myself outside of school and also in a different institution with a curriculum based around birth and breastfeeding?

It doesn’t even matter that we all work in the medical profession, if a mother (or father) mentions they’re doing a home birth no one should give catty remarks based on a lack of knowledge. Its not common place to insult or be unsupportive with the scheduled csection mother yet for some reason its acceptable to ridicule the person who actually is making educated informed decisions.

If a person is making choices based on complete informed decision making, everyone should be supportive PERIOD.

Introductions

I don’t know whether to address this blog as if I am speaking to friends, who know me, or if I should just assume everyone is new here? I also haven’t had a journal/blog since the days of deadjournal so I guess we’ll see how this goes. I have created this blog as a way to get away from Facebook and better organize the things I learn and things I want to share so others can learn.

I am also pregnant with my 3rd children, and the 3rd time is the charm. I am doing an unassisted pregnancy and unassisted childbirth this time around and have invited whomever to join me on this journey.

The name of the blog? Why, my lady parts are pretty fucking awesome, and the misadventures would be my children and things that go along with them.

So if you’re interested in evidence based maternity care and evidence based parenting practices accompanied with other health related topics, stick around, or bookmark me? Whatever is done in the blog world.