There is not a ton of evidence (aside from anecdotal) that there is a benefit. Animals do this instinctively, and some cultures practice this as well. If you are going to do it, raw or dried would probably be best as cooking may destroy beneficial bacterial, vitamins, certain cells, etc. The best theory, I think, as to the benefit of eating the placenta is that it contains high amounts of iron. Replacing iron after childbirth definitely makes sense! Low iron can negatively affect mood and mental health as well https://www.livestrong.com/article/489269-can-iron-deficiency-cause-psychological-problems/

Based on my personal experience I did not eat placenta and I did not experience any depression. Eating the placenta is gross and weird and unnecessary.

We looked into eating the placenta, once you see what it looks like (face hugger from Alien) you’ll nope right out of that notion.

What I will strongly encourage is to make sure you tell the hospital that you want to keep the placenta and take it home with you and bury it in the yard.

Our hospital experience was a nightmare, they really do push for a c-section. Make sure to read up on all this stuff before you go in because they will scare you into petosin and epidurals.

Also don’t go into the hospital until contractions are consistently 5 minutes part (there’s a timing app). If the wife isn’t diahlated enough they will try and break her water prematurely and rush the pregnancy. Our first born was almost a nightmare.

Excuse me,

Needs to breastfeed.

Animals do that pretty often so I guess it makes some sense biologically. Are animals doing it for some specific benefit though or just conserving resources? It would be difficult to hunt right after giving birth after all.

If it's the latter then there's not much point in well fed modern people doing it. If it's the former, I still wouldn't expect a woman to eat something I sure as hell wouldn't. Maybe do the capsule thing, but personally I'd be more concerned with the other harmful stuff they do in the hospital, like induced labor, unnecessary c-sections and stem cell harvesting.

I just wanted to say I read all the comments and I died laughing, but you guys are all sick in the head.

My exwife ate the placenta with the second kid. Didn't notice much of a difference, she was a crazy bitch either way.

Modern pseudoscience horseshit

Meh, it's a piece of meat. We preserved ours, encapsulated some but never used it. We were fine. We have family members that ate some of theirs. I guess for some people it's on their bucket list.

Fwiw, I hear it tastes like beef.