Placenta Encapsulation: Lactation
Scientific research supports the lactation principle of Traditional Chinese Medicine. According to the article "Placenta as a Lactagogon" the majority of women who were given dried placenta after childbirth (86%) had positive results of increased milk production after ingesting the dried placenta, including women who had been unable to produce adequate amounts of breast milk after previous births (Soykova-Pachnerova, Brutar, Golova & Zvolska, 619). Of the 210 women in the study, 86% showed swelling breast tissue and increased lactation. There were no negative effects or symptoms exhibited by those who ingested the dried placenta. In fact, those who did not show much benefit from the placental ingestion still showed reactive swelling of the breasts, even when no milk or inadequate amounts of milk was produced. "Negative results" reported in the study simply meant that there had not been an adequate increase of/supply of milk after the placenta was ingested. The overwhelmingly positive results of this study confirm the belief that placenta ingestion supports lactation and helps prepare the body for successful lactation and breastfeeding.
The hormones in the placenta help to stimulate and increase milk supply, and the iron in the placenta helps to restore iron levels in the mother's body therefore allowing her body to produce more breast milk. Additionally, the women presented in the study had small breast an/or small glands and had previously been unable to successfully breastfeed. An overwhelming majority of the women in the study who ingested placenta experienced a dramatic increase in breast milk supply, and were then able to successfully breastfeed and maintain the increased supply. Based in these results, one can surmise that ingesting placenta during the postpartum period could be just as beneficial (or even more so) for women who are not experiencing breastfeeding difficulties or inadequate supply.
A retained placenta often causes breastfeeding issues by limiting milk production because of the hormones produced by the retained placenta. The production of these hormones is detrimental to milk production in this capacity, because they are hormones which the body uses to sustain pregnancy, and when the placenta is retained the body is unable to fully distinguished that the child has been born, that the pregnancy no longer needs to be sustained, and that it is now time for the body to produce milk to sustain the infant. Once the placenta detaches from the uterine walls and is released from the body, the body is signaled that pregnancy is over and that the postnatal period has begun, which includes the beginning of lactation. For these reasons a retained placenta is detrimental to lactation, while placenta used in the TCM method is beneficial to lactation as seen by the overwhelmingly positive results exhibited by 86% of the 210 women who participated in the Soykova-Pachnerova, et al. study.
The hormones in the placenta help to stimulate and increase milk supply, and the iron in the placenta helps to restore iron levels in the mother's body therefore allowing her body to produce more breast milk. Additionally, the women presented in the study had small breast an/or small glands and had previously been unable to successfully breastfeed. An overwhelming majority of the women in the study who ingested placenta experienced a dramatic increase in breast milk supply, and were then able to successfully breastfeed and maintain the increased supply. Based in these results, one can surmise that ingesting placenta during the postpartum period could be just as beneficial (or even more so) for women who are not experiencing breastfeeding difficulties or inadequate supply.
A retained placenta often causes breastfeeding issues by limiting milk production because of the hormones produced by the retained placenta. The production of these hormones is detrimental to milk production in this capacity, because they are hormones which the body uses to sustain pregnancy, and when the placenta is retained the body is unable to fully distinguished that the child has been born, that the pregnancy no longer needs to be sustained, and that it is now time for the body to produce milk to sustain the infant. Once the placenta detaches from the uterine walls and is released from the body, the body is signaled that pregnancy is over and that the postnatal period has begun, which includes the beginning of lactation. For these reasons a retained placenta is detrimental to lactation, while placenta used in the TCM method is beneficial to lactation as seen by the overwhelmingly positive results exhibited by 86% of the 210 women who participated in the Soykova-Pachnerova, et al. study.