I've written before about the amazing placenta, and my own experience encapsulating and consuming my own. I believe it is a way to bring our journey to motherhood "full circle", completing the process. There are nutritional and hormonal benefits, but I also think there is something more to it that we don't fully understand...
I've had lots of thoughts swirling around my head about preparation, intention and energy involved when encapsulating. I have to be completely honest that when I came away from my training having worked on a real placenta, I was excited and yet apprehensive. I wasn't sure if it was for me after all. The whole experience had felt completely otherworldly.
When I was preparing my first ever placenta, I wasn't ready to be attuned with somebody else's energy. I had no warning. I'd never experienced anything like it before.
I came home and began to consider how I would like to proceed in this art (and if I would!)
I thought about the placenta, the baby's constant companion in the womb and source of comfort and life.
It was clear to me that as I was drawing feeling from the placenta, surely mine must be going in - like an exchange. Just like when you're about to enter a birth room and you leave your "crap" at the door (personal emotions and worries, stresses of life) in order to be completely there for that woman, the same goes for the placenta. This is special work.
The first way I get ready to begin my work is to take a few deep breaths and put on my birthing playlist that inspired me for Autumn-Violet's birth as it puts me in the right frame of mind and to harness the strength and beauty of my memories.
When working on the placenta of a friend, I thought long and hard about her birth, how she might be feeling, and my hopes and intentions for her postpartum recovery. I thought about her children and how I hoped that fourth trimester period and transition would go for all of them. Just that simple thinking is willing those positive things to happen. I wanted to put as much happiness and hope into her capsules as I could.
The magic is in the intention.
The transmitting of feelings definitely happens the other way too, which was what I struggled with in my training as it overwhelmed me.
One placenta I can only describe as joyous. While working on it I was at a difficult point in my life, and I found myself grinning as joy sparked within me as I cut the placenta into thin slices. It had such a lovely feeling emanating from it that I just had to message the mum to let her know how much I was enjoying the process. There was no other reason for me to be so randomly happy at that point. I definitely wanted to give something back - I thought of the specific reasons she wanted her placenta encapsulated, and her difficult experiences, her beautiful birth and family and focused just on that until I was done.
While preparing my own placenta I felt a bit dizzy, like I was getting vibrations from it!
What we put into our bodies is so important, and I definitely believe that emotions and energies can be transferred in this way, especially with something as miraculous and unique as the placenta. I am still learning, and enjoying getting to "know" all these different amazing and life-sustaining placentas and hope more women can benefit from remedies postnatally.
