I don't know how many placentas have passed through my kitchen, but it is a lot.
Some things never change. Being one of the first ones to meet the new father, what an honour - always pale and proud, hoping he has fulfilled his mission properly when it comes to the precious, irreplaceable placenta. So grateful to hand it over to me and know his part is done.
You never know what you're going to take out of the box. You never know what the energy will be like, but if you know the mama well, you will feel her. The huge ones like dinner plates, the dainty ones.
The ones with extra lobes or cord anomalies. The pearly white cords or the prematurely clamped ones curling like retro telephone cords.
The manual extractions that arrive in pieces and that cause spontaneous prayer to spring to my lips. The birth before arrival with the string still attached on the instruction of the 999 call handler.
Working with placentas you work with families in the most intimate way at such a vulnerable time. When you're the first to hear the birth story that didn't go to plan and hold space for that grief. When the mama comes to the door herself with her face glowing because she did it, she did it herself, and her triumph radiates out from her like sunshine.
I love the different women who chose encapsulation. They are impossible to put into a box but they share one thing in common - they believe they are important.
I love it when families come back a second time, a third time, who let me know of the new life they have created before they announce it to the world.
An honour. Thank you.
https://placentaremediesnetwork.org/specialist/jenny-wren/
