A man rapidly pacing up and down the corridors of a maternity ward isn’t an uncommon sight—but unlike the other new dads, Anna Williamson’s husband wasn’t holding a newborn… it was her freshly expelled placenta, in a lasagne dish.
The Celebs Go Dating expert, 44, is one of thousands of women who have opted to use their placenta to support post-natal recovery bolstered by—scientifically unproven—claims that it can lessen the chances of developing post-natal depression.
The practice, known as ‘placentophagy’, is heralded in wellness circles for lessening the chances of developing post-natal depression, and is said to be the best way to replace the iron and nutrients lost during childbirth.
The placenta is either eaten raw, blended up in a smoothie, roasted like a joint of meat, or freeze dried, ground up and taken in tablet form, a process known as encapsulation.
Earlier this week, it was revealed that Radio 1 DJ Vick Hope was the latest star to partake in the practice after her husband Calvin Harris posted gory pictures of the chopped up organ inside a dehydrator.
The post divided fans, with some pleased to see the couple ‘normalising’ the practice, and others branding it as ‘TMI’.
Anna’s husband, personal trainer Alex Di Pasquale, 36, didn’t have to be as hands-on as Calvin when it came to the preparation of her placenta pills.
All Alex had to do was pass the spongey organ over to a representative from the private company they paid £150 to ‘encapsulate’ her placenta after she welcomed her son in 2017.
Anna Williamson had her placenta encapsulated after the birth of her first child
Anna is one of the experts on Celebs Go Dating, which returns to screens next week
She told the Daily Mail: ‘The midwife took my placenta and put it in the Pyrex dish.
‘My husband called the encapsulation company and they sent a courier to meet him in the hospital car park.’
Then, jokingly comparing the handover to a ‘dodgy drug deal’, she explained that the rep took the dish, carefully removed the organ and placed it inside a medical-grade cool bag before driving away.
‘I got my lasagna dish back, and I gave it a proper clean and it went through the dishwasher.
‘I still use it, but I don’t often admit to people that it momentarily had my placenta in it.
‘I understand why people might be put off by it, but it’s no different to it once containing a couple of raw sausages or some minced meat, and it is still in perfect working condition.’
Just four days after the carpark handover, Anna received a vitamin jar in the post which contained 60 capsules filled with powdered afterbirth.
‘There were lots of different packages on what you want to have—creams, balms, and keepsakes,’ she said.
Anna has two children, a son aged 8, and daughter, 5
‘But I didn’t want any of that. I just wanted the capsules.’
Like all new mums, Anna was overwhelmed by the prospect of becoming a mother, and in addition, was worried that the surge of pregnancy hormones could trigger a mental health crisis.
She explained: ‘I was very fearful in pregnancy, around my hormones and around my mental health, knowing how awful it was when I had a mental health crash.
‘Furthermore, because I have always been quite iron deficient and anaemic, I thought they couldn’t do any harm.
‘I just thought, ‘Who am I to say it doesn’t work? Animals in the natural world eat their placenta’.
‘Maybe we’re just being a bit too Western, a bit too sniffy about something that sounds a bit rank.
‘I didn’t see any scientific data around it, but anecdotal evidence claims it helps protect against postnatal depression, boosts milk production and aids general recovery after birth.’
Sadly for Anna, her first birth was incredibly traumatic, and despite taking the pills, she struggled with the mental, emotional and physical toll of childbirth for several months.
The new series of Celebs Go Dating starts on E4 Monday
‘Unfortunately I experienced terrible birth trauma,’ she said.
‘My postnatal depression was so severe that I was on the borderline of postpartum psychosis.
‘It was so severe that I don’t think an iron tablet or a placenta tablet was really going to touch the sides.
‘I had a two litre haemorrhage and I was struggling to breastfeed just due to the postnatal trauma.’
Anna chose not to have her placenta encapsulated after the birth of her second child, a daughter, now 5,—but not because she believes that eating her placenta was pointless.
‘I’m really open to it, and I didn’t do it the second time around for no other reason other than I was so busy with my pregnancy—I was filming Celebs Go Dating eight days up until I gave birth.
‘It was the last thing on my mind because I was so stressed about my second birth and I was just focused on my planned C-section.
‘I just wanted to have a baby that was alive and healthy.
Calvin Harris and Vick Hope recently welcomed their first child, a son named Micah
Calvin posted a photo of Vick’s placenta, which was dehydrated before being turned into supplements
The proud dad showed off the capsules made from Vick’s placenta
‘But I would do it again, and I would say to somebody, if they were thinking about it, why not?’
However, there are risks. In 2017, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in the US issued a warning against the practice after a baby was diagnosed with a strep infection after his mother consumed placenta pills.
Strep B – which kills one baby a week in the UK and 50,000 people worldwide annually – was transferred to the baby through breast milk when the mother took placental capsules.
In a shocking report the coroner said: ‘That’s the case that still haunts everyone in the industry.’
A 2018 study found that women who were given placebo capsules or placental pills experienced no significant changes in mood, energy levels or the emotional bond with their newborn baby.
One study that evaluated the amount of hormones in the placenta could potentially reach a level of physiological impact if ingested.
However, once the placenta is handled, dehydrated and packaged into a pill, it is unclear if the hormones are biologically present anymore.
Experts have also warned that the temporary organ can contain viruses, bacteria and even heavy metals due to its role of filtering the blood and protecting the growing foetus.
Interestingly, Anna was advised to take half of her capsules following the birth and to freeze the remainder to take once she enters perimenopause—which she thinks won’t be long.
She laughed: ‘They’ve been frozen ever since I got them. Can any harm come from me eating a nine year old placenta capsule? I’m not sure.’