A Placenta Picture Frame as a Keepsake?

Amanda Cotton is an artist who has found an innovative way to honor the human placenta: by creating a picture frame. Imagine using raw materials provided by your body to hold and treasure a beautiful keepsake such as a photograph of your newborn.

I think this is an interesting concept, especially because you can keep it forever, and I love that people are continuing to think of ways to honor the placenta instead of discarding it as waste material.

Personally, I loved ingesting my placenta so much that I would find it hard to make a picture frame from it and miss the benefits of its consumption. I felt so much more balanced this last time around when I took my placenta and I never plan to do a postpartum period without my placenta again. It was so helpful and I had an absolutely blissful babymoon.

To learn more of Amanda's work: http://www.amandacotton.co.uk/placenta-/433778_placenta-photo-frame-.html.

What do you think? Creepy or cool?

Crazy Super Fast Birth

http://birthwithoutfearblog.com/2013/02/13/the-birth-story-of-finley-nathaniel-planned-homebirth-unplanned-unassisted/

This was a great birth story of a crazy super fast birth. It's nice to know that birth can be this way too. There's so many variations of normal.

Could You Be Experiencing Postpartum Anxiety?

Read about one mom's experience with postpartum anxiety. It's important to recognize and it's important to get help!

http://www.mothering.com/community/a/mothering-with-mental-illness-inside-postpartum-anxiety

These Twins Can't Stop Hugging

This is sweet!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/15/newborn-twins-hugging-bath-video_n_4282550.html

Surprise Twin Breech VBAC on Side of Road

http://offbeatfamilies.com/2012/05/surprise-twin-roadside-vbac

Incredible story!

Doula Vocab Lesson

Yep. That's pretty much what it feels like. 

Respond to Baby

Life in the Womb

http://www.buzzfeed.com/personhoodusa/top-10-mind-blowing-images-of-human-life-in-the-wo-drqv

These are amazing images of life in the womb at different stages of gestation. Very eye opening that there is indeed a real life growing in the womb. I loved this!

Placenta Eating Mammal

So this video is probably too much for most people and if you feel that way, then don't feel as though you need to watch it, but the point is that amongst mammals, placenta eating is normal and any effort to normalize the use of the placenta, whether amongst animals or humans, is a beneficial thing.

Babies Are Nice

Two Studies of The Effects of Placental Weight

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16578997

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK32815/

These are two studies that examined the effects of placental weight on various factors. It makes for some interesting reading. One thing is certain: the placenta is beginning to receive more attention and research as scientists discover all the amazing aspects of it.

Another Benefit of Placenta Encapsulation

Something I noticed during my postpartum that I think may be tied to placenta encapsulation is this...

When taking the placenta capsules (and it wouldn't happen on the days I forgot or after I stopped taking them) is that I would feel and notice sensations with much more heightened awareness. Textures on my hands and feet and tongue were more pronounced. My sense like taste and smell were heightened. I also had many moments of this pure blissful feeling where I would just take a deep breath and everything felt absolutely perfect in my life even though consciously I was aware of some continued struggles.

Is this a result of placenta encapsulation? I can't say conclusively, but in my experience, it sure felt like it. I have never heard anyone else describe this from placenta encapsulation, but for me, it could have been. I did not have these sensations after my first two births and I didn't encapsulate after those either.

I am so curious to see what my experience will be like next time around. In the meantime, has anyone else experienced this? Weigh in below!

Go To Baby

How A Child Grows

A Life Impact?

Do you agree with this? I used to really buy into this, especially around the time of my second birth. Now that I've had my third birth, even though it was as natural and beautiful as my second, I am more excited about the baby than the birth and honestly, I don't know that it will really matter when I am old and gray how I gave birth. I had some pain around how I gave birth to my son, but I believe we can heal. And I did heal and you know what I realized? I still get to keep the baby. So for women who don't get the birth they envision, they can heal and they get to keep the baby! So will it really matter when our kids are grown and gone and we're cuddling our grandchildren? I'll have to let you know when I get there.

Free Range Mommy

Safe Breastmilk Sharing

Got Milk?

Cute

Pregnancy Walk In The Park

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/28/nine-months-time-lapse_n_3829873.html


This is cool. A husband made a time lapsed video of his wife's pregnancy. Enjoy!

25 Children's Books Depicting Breastfeeding

http://www.mothering.com/community/a/25-childrens-books-that-depict-breastfeeding

I am posting this mainly so I have a reference later on and I also thought others could use this info. I know I want it to be perfectly natural to my children to be around breastfeeding and to accept that this is how babies are fed and introducing them to books that do that is important.

It's interesting... when baby number three got here, my son did not remember me feeding my daughter and my daughter did not remember breastfeeding so they were both like, "that's how the baby eats?" And I said "yep" and that's all we had to talk about it: they just accepted what is.