United States, young mothers celebrate their birth by cooking and then eating their own placenta. Sociopaths or visionary?

Motherhood is a world bathed in dogmas all more eccentric ones than the others. Thus, among various orders - sometimes contradictory, and variable from year to year - from the Handbook of Best Mother of the Month ("Delivers extended (but not grow)! Pack your purees yourself (but buys a BABYCOOK anyway)! Suckle your child until the age of majority (except in the street)! Join the activities at 47 and in a private bilingual school (but do not spoil too much)! Returns to work after three days (but does not a nursery place)! The while yourself an independent woman and desirable (but somewhat subject anyway)! "), you must show a good dose of imagination to achieve surprise us again. And yet ... this practice could be described as a "new trend" will not fail to surprise you. It's just eating her placenta shortly after birth.

Never without my placenta.

This is the serious New York Times was the first to put the spotlight last month on the practice - yet old. According to the magazine, the United States, would swallow the common placenta. Christine Lewicki, business coach and author of the famous "Quit bitching" is a French expatriate in Los Angeles. If she herself does not see the food, it has already rubbed shoulders with the practice and confirms that it is not uncommon: "I know several mothers who have eaten their placenta, a friend had prepared a soup for my neighbor, another friend gave her placenta to a Chinese pharmacy that has dried and turned them into capsules: in, it seems there are all the vitamins necessary to recover from pregnancy. "
Use your placenta is not new. In some cultures, we do not eat the placenta but is buried. Christine Lewicki and chose herself for this solution: "I put it under a tree in honor of my daughter. I liked the ritual of putting it in the ground. Most surprising was to see the green grass all around the tree. " Anne, a farmer near Chartres, also buried their placentas: "I gave birth at home, so it was easy for me to keep them. For each pregnancy, my husband buried the placenta under a tree girls, each has dedicated his tree ... It is a memory, a tribute to Mother Nature, "argues the young mother. At the hospital, however, it is more difficult to leave, after the stay in the maternity, its own placenta under the arm ...

Cannibalism, cannibalism?

Our fellow French seem, they, quite reluctant. Can not find a mother who already enjoyed the placenta and agreeing to testify, despite our research with various associations and forums and varied. On the contrary, the reactions are quite conservative, even mocking, suggesting cannibalism and asking whether to prepare a tartar sauce to accompany it, eat it with your fingers at birth or decorate with fresh chips. So eating the placenta are they Hannibal Lecter in power? Not at all, if one believes that recalls the Larousse definition of cannibalism: "Action to eat a creature of its kind." As nail biting, nibbling her hair and swallow his cuticles, eat her placenta is certainly unsavory, but not fatal disease so far.
According to Dr. Levy, a psychiatrist, using the placenta as part of traditional customs is nothing pathological "This raises questions, however, it is these women from Western cultures and who want to choose what they are doing their placenta. There is a will to absolute control, the food is a way to re-fill the belly after delivery of the baby: what to ask is why it is unbearable for the women to leave their placenta ? And what they want while eating a placenta: a form of maternal omnipotence, perhaps ...? "In any case, after the ice" Babygags "based on breast milk, the trend" Eat me, I am mom "seems to present.
"All mammals do it"

Placentavores women interviewed by the American press and testifying on specialized forums suggest any similar arguments: "Eating the placenta, it is natural, other mammals do." In The Devil's Dictionary, Ambrose Bierce famous for his love of provocation as defined in mammals, "Mammals: family of animals lactating females naturally small, but educated and civilized version uses a nurse or bottle. "
One way deliberately aggressive and questionable to say no, we are not obliged to comply with the practices of our animal friends. Otherwise, when the collective public delousing or coitus in greeting: after all, if mammals do ...?

Cord Blood

Cord blood is the blood in the placenta and umbilical cord of mammals. Once considered a waste operation, it has now an interest in regenerative medicine.

Cord blood contains:
hematopoietic stem cells, which are blood cells, which are not considered as embryonic stem cells, which in terms of medical ethics and the regulatory status gives them more open than if s' acting in cells of the embryo itself.

Mésenchiques stem cells, which are tissue cells;
These cells are similar to those found in bone marrow, and have been used successfully in some degenerative diseases of the spinal cord.

Collection for therapeutic or research

Cord blood of mice was one of the first used to search its components and its benefits. Since then, cord blood is collected after the birth of many children in a growing number of countries.

Cord blood is collected and analyzed to quantify the number of white cells and stem cells it contains. If it meets certain conditions (depending on countries and changes in legislation), the cord blood is stored for use stem cells it contains. In France about 30% of cords meet these criteria and are retained. Parents can donate cord blood to a public bank of cord blood so that it can be used to save the life of a child or an adult mainly in certain cancers.



In some countries, it can also be set in a private bank , private banking offering to the family, against a sum of money, to freeze and store their child's cord (not authorized in France but a bill mentions this possibility and causes severe controversy, particularly around the following issues:
Traffic unethical aspects of life or human cells
risks of abuse-related costs of conservation
strong doubts about the medical value of autologous transplantation in the case of treating diseases that we want here, because
the probability of using this cord blood donor in the family is less than 0.04%;
it is often necessary for this type of transplant two cords to get a useful amount of cells
if none of the medical expert does not deny the interest of the allograft in a patient who brings elements of the immune system of a healthy donor, the graft autologous cord blood is generally considered a priori useless, even dangerous for recipient.

For example, in leukemia cases, diseased cells can be reinoculated to the recipient, and we know that many leukemias are initiated before birth. There is no scientific basis to justify the autologous graft.