Human placentophagy
[5] The risks of human placentophagy are also still unclear,[6] but there has been one confirmed case of an infant needing hospitalization due to a group B strep blood infection tied to their mother's consumption of placenta capsules.
[1] Of the more than 4000 species of placental mammals, most, including herbivores, regularly engage in maternal placentophagy, thought to be an instinct to hide any trace of childbirth from predators in the wild.
[9] Placentophagy might have occurred during the Siege of Jerusalem (587 BC), due to the famine experienced by the Judeans, according to scholar Jack Miles in his Pulitzer Prize-winning God: A Biography.
[10] From an evolutionary perspective, it appears that the human species must have stopped practicing maternal placentophagy at a fairly early stage, since there is no evidence that it has ever been common.
"[1] Another Chinese medical text, the Great Pharmacopoeia of 1596, recommends placental tissue mixed with human milk to help overcome the effects of qi exhaustion.
[8] In the Maremma region of Italy, it was common at one time to mix pieces of placenta into the food of a new mother without her knowledge; this was intended to promote a healthy flow of milk.
[1] Placentophagy did receive popular culture attention in 2012, however, when American actress January Jones credited eating her placenta as helping her get back to work on the set of Mad Men after just six weeks.
In the 1960s "male and female Vietnamese nurses and midwives of Chinese and Thai background consum[ed] the placentas of their young, healthy patients" for reasons unspecified, as reported by a Czechoslovakian medical officer in at the Hospital of Czechoslovak-Vietnamese Friendship in Haiphong.
[8] A more recent cross-cultural ethnographic study by researchers at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas surveyed 179 contemporary human societies, and identified only one culture (Chicano, or Mexican-American) that mentioned the practice of maternal placentophagy.
[1] This account, centering on Chicano and Anglo midwifery in San Antonio, Texas, stated, "cooking and eating part of the placenta has…been reported by a couple of midwives.
[18][19] The authors themselves, however, state that "exceedingly little research has been conducted to assess these claims and no systematic analysis has been performed to evaluate the experiences of women who engage in this behavior."
However, a recent randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled pilot study conducted by researchers at UNLV found that consuming a commonly recommended daily intake of encapsulated placenta (approximately 3,000 mg per day) only provides about one-quarter of the RDA for iron for lactating women.
A 2015 review found that while a minority of women in western countries perceive placentophagy as reducing the risk of postpartum depression and enhancing recovery, there is no evidence that this is the case.
The same study also found inconclusive evidence that placentophagy was of any benefit to facilitating uterine contraction, resumption of normal cyclic estrogen cycle, and milk production.
"[24] UNLV researchers found that some essential minerals and steroid hormones remained in human placenta that was cooked and processed for encapsulation and consumption.
