Our mothers and grandmothers were hardly interested in where the placenta goes after childbirth in medical institutions. However, today this issue is given much more importance, and not only by future women in labor. The reason for this is the widely advertised miraculous placental cosmetics, which are far from cheap, and since they are produced, they take the raw materials somewhere! Let's find out how employees of maternity hospitals should deal with the placenta, do they always follow the prescribed rules, and do they really enrich themselves at the expense of unknowing mothers?
And we will also tell you how the most creative women in labor do with their placenta.
Briefly the main thing: what is the placenta?
The afterbirth, or baby place, as the placenta is sometimes called, is an embryonic organ that forms around the embryo from its membranes, grows into the uterine mucosa with the help of special villi and creates a connection between the mother's body and the embryo.
Due to the placenta, the futurea person eats, it provides his breath, removes metabolic products and, paradoxically as it may sound, protects from the mother's body, more precisely from immune cells that perceive the fetus as a foreign body.
The afterbirth comes out a few minutes after the birth of the child, for which it got its name. This temporary organ is also formed in the females of 94% of mammalian and cartilaginous fish species. Do you know what some animals do with the placenta? That's right, they eat it. Q: Why?
Delicious, he althy or essential?
Placentophagy is practiced even by herbivores, for example, a cow, having licked a calf, immediately eats the afterbirth, which is surprising, because this is the only precedent in her life of eating raw meat. However, this behavior is justified.
According to the observations of experienced veterinarians, eating the placenta is only good for cows:
- postpartum bleeding stops quickly;
- womb takes its original shape during the day;
- less common genital tract infections;
- no lactation problems.
Moreover, many herdsmen send the “wrong” cow that leaves the afterbirth for meat, because they believe that she will no longer be able to bring he althy offspring, not to mention the fact that she can properly feed the calf and give milk to the owner.
But in the wild, females eating the placenta is understandable: in this way, animals clean up after themselves, because the smell of blood can attract predators. Well, homemadecats and dogs do it already at the level of instincts. By the way, sometimes cats help their “wives” in eating the placenta, which means they don’t see anything disgusting in such a meal.
In addition, it is believed that the placenta contains hormones and nutrients necessary for postpartum recovery. In reality, females who have just given birth do not have much choice. The first days after birth, they do not leave helpless cubs, and the afterbirth from offspring becomes the only alternative to wholesome food.
With animals, everything is clear, but the last decade in the world there has been a tendency to eat the afterbirth by mammals of the order of primates of the hominin family, better known as representatives of the Homo sapiens species. And this concerns not wild tribes, but civilized women and even men. Why do they need this, we will tell a little later, and now we will find out what is done with the placenta after childbirth in medical institutions and whether the woman in labor can dispose of the placenta at her discretion.
Temporary organ: one for two
From the point of view of the law, the placenta is an internal organ belonging equally to the mother and baby. Since the newborn is not yet able to make decisions, the placenta should be managed by his mother. If desired, she has every right to take her own placenta from the hospital and do with it what she wants. You will be surprised how women use the afterbirth, but more on that later.
According to SanPiN standards, the placenta is equated to waste biological material, as,for example, an appendix, an amputated limb, or a removed tumor, therefore, must be disposed of. However, there are several options for the development of events where the placenta is put in maternity hospitals:
- give to mother;
- recycled as useless as unclaimed biomaterial;
- sent for histology (for medical reasons) and then disposed of.
There are no other options, since the trade in organs is prohibited in our country. But the mother will still have to sign the papers, and this is not a bureaucracy, but a necessity.
Document for placenta
In the first case, the woman in labor will know exactly where the placenta goes after childbirth, having received her organ safe and sound. In the second, he simply signs a refusal, and the maternity hospital will need this paper for research or when disposing of biowaste. However, it will be possible to pick up the placenta without problems if the birth went without complications, the condition of the child and the mother is satisfactory and there is no need for additional studies.
The placenta will not be given in case of stillbirth or if pathologies of intrauterine development, such as placental insufficiency, have been detected. In this case, histological analysis will determine the causes of fetal malformations and, if necessary, prescribe adequate treatment for the child. And of course, the placenta will not be given if a pregnant woman has been diagnosed with hepatitis, AIDS and other serious illnesses.
Now we will tell you what they do with the placenta in the maternity hospital after the papers are signed.
Storage
Mommy, who decided to take the placenta with her, is unlikelyentrust it even to the most responsible medical staff. In this case, a prudent woman in labor stocks up with a cooler bag in advance, where the obstetrician determines her placenta and passes it on to relatives.
There are firms that encapsulate the biomaterial and, according to the signed contract, provide the mother in labor with a kit for transporting and storing the placenta free of charge. The placenta can be stored under the following conditions:
- at room temperature no more than 4 hours;
- refrigerated up to 72 hours;
- half a year when deep frozen.
However, placentophagy is still not widespread in Russia, therefore, in most cases, the last type of medical waste is disposed of in accordance with the requirements of the law.
Disposal of the placenta
Any budgetary or commercial medical institution is subject to a whole set of norms, rules and sanitary and epidemiological requirements regarding the collection, storage and disposal of waste from he althcare facilities. For example, SanPiN 2.1.7.728-99 (Moscow, 2000), SanPiN 2.1.7.2790-10 (Moscow, 2010), etc.
Where does the placenta go after childbirth if it is subject to research or disposal? In both cases, the material is packed in a sealed bag, after which it must be labeled. For research, they are sent to the laboratory along with an accompanying referral, unclaimed placentas are disposed of.
Not all hospitals have their own mini-crematoriums, so the management of institutions concludes contracts with licensed companies providing this type of service. Naturally, paying from the budget of the hospital. Waste disposal companies collect materials and then burn or bury in designated areas in the cemetery.
Compliance with the prescribed rules by medical institutions should be under the control of inspection bodies. But what about medical ethics and are there exceptions? Now you will find out the option of where obstetricians put the placenta after childbirth. This story will be of particular interest to those who consider the afterbirth a source of enrichment.
You like the placenta: piece or by weight?
In 2015, a film crew from one of the regional TV channels decided to conduct an experiment: how the law on the ban on organ trafficking works in our country.
Under the guise of buyers, employees of the TV company got into the laboratory of one of the city hospitals without any problems. Interest in a specific biomaterial of medical workers was not surprising, on the contrary, it turned out that there are always those who want to buy a placenta, and they willingly made a deal, recommended purchasing containers for transportation and were not interested in the future of the placenta.
Having learned about the desire of buyers to purchase a large batch, they thought about how to sell better, by the piece or by weight. We agreed on 30 kg of placenta for 15 thousand rubles. (for 500 rubles apiece). So simple and cynical.
Now you know how much the afterbirth costs after childbirth and what unscrupulous he alth workers do with it. Whether this was an isolated case, or whether placenta trading has become a common practice, one can only guess.
Pricerejuvenation
Surely the cost of the placenta surprised those who used or were interested in placental cosmetics. For example, a 90% concentrate of highly purified placenta with a volume of 30 ml costs almost 10 thousand rubles. Anti-aging kits will cost about 5 thousand rubles, anti-aging serums - 2 thousand rubles.
The thing is that the placenta as a raw material is not of particular value without special equipment that allows for multi-stage purification and hydrolysis, and then isolate the necessary components from the biomaterial. And this is an expensive procedure. In addition, the most expensive cosmetics also include expensive hyaluronic acid.
In our country, the law prohibits the use of human organs for industrial purposes. However, cosmetics manufacturers are not embarrassed by this, because a clear ban on the placenta is not written anywhere. They enter into contracts with medical institutions, from where they receive he althy afterbirths.
Products containing human placenta are marked "allogeneic". If there is no such inscription, the manufacturer has used sheep, pig or cow progeny, or a placenta of plant origin. For many customers, this is an important moral and ethical moment, because not everyone is ready to smear their face with products containing particles of human organs, even at the molecular level.
And now we will tell you where some women in labor go after childbirth, whose behavior will seem like real cannibalism to many.
Placenta raw and in capsules
The healing and rejuvenating properties of the placenta have been known to man since the time of the healer Avicenna and Queen Cleopatra, although they have not been scientifically confirmed. Today, in some states of Africa and Southeast Asia, women in labor eat a piece of the placenta, and this wild custom is adopted by women from Europe and America.
Some eat a piece raw, others use the services of companies that offer to prepare a fruit and berry smoothie with a placenta right in the maternity ward. The service costs about 2000 rubles, and both moms and dads are happy to use the finished product.
For those who really want to, but cannot force themselves to eat the organ raw, specially trained people come to the rescue - doulas or placental encapsulation companies. But if you purchase a dehydrator and a dry powder packaging machine, you can make capsules with a placenta yourself. From one afterbirth, from 100 to 200 capsules are obtained, which, according to supporters of placentophagy, help to cope with postpartum depression, restore hormonal levels, improve lactation, and give the mother strength and energy.
Now you will learn what to do with the placenta after childbirth on the example of very resourceful women.
Original ways to use the placenta
Placental tree - why not decorate the interior? Some mothers make an imprint of the placenta on durable acid-free paper, laying the placenta with the umbilical cord down. A little paint, and you get a beautiful print that resembles a tree withspreading crown and powerful roots.
Another option is to leave an afterbirth on the roof of the house for the birds. According to the people of Yemen, this strengthens the marriage bond.
You can also contact a jeweler who works with the placenta and order beads, pendants, rings or bracelets. They say it looks good in epoxy.
Such options will seem shocking to many, but if the expectant mother is really concerned about where the placenta goes after childbirth in a medical facility, it is worth doing what our ancestors and Hollywood actor Matthew McConaughey did. He buried his son's afterbirth in an orchard.
