The word ‘placenta’ translates as ‘flat cake’ in Latin, and today thousands of mums, including Kim Kardashian and Gwyneth Paltrow are having their afterbirth and eating it.
This trend of mummy madness made headlines last week when Swindon Council launched a hygiene investigation into placenta smoothie maker , Kathryn Beale,.
And now this bloody beverage has reached Hackney..
Cath Reeve-Jones, a 42 year-old Hackney midwife has spent the last fifteen years blending the bloody organs with berries and bananas
Like Mrs Beale, the Banbury Road resident is a member of the Independent Placenta Encapsulation Network (IPEN).
“We’ve had the food standards agency come after us, but I think it’s probably made us safer.
“It’s not like I’d ever blend a placenta that has been sat on the windowsill for 24 hours.”
The midwife advises women on placenta smoothie making, removing small piece of the afterbirth herself before placing them in bags destined for home blenders.
Placentas, according to Cath, are “meaty like liver, but more friable than that”. They smell “irony and bloody” but apparently “different” to menstrual blood.
Her interest in the business was sparked when her own midwife recommended the bizarre beverage.
“I tended to bleed at my births – so the first midwife I had suggested a smoothie. I’d had a home birth and I’d realized that these midwives knew what they were talking about.”
Smoothie advocates such as Cath say drinking your placenta can improve all manner of health problems, from speeding up lactation in breastfeeding mums, to lessening symptoms of postnatal depression.
So how exactly is the placenta smoothie made?
Placenta are delivered, showed to the mother and checked they are safe to eat following a midwife’s inspection. Two “thumb size” pieces of flesh are then cut from the organ and given to the new mum with instructions to blend.
So what’s the perfect recipe for these distasteful ingredients? Cath’s advice – stick to the red fruits, “to disguise the colour and flavour”, she explains.
However, whilst most women opt for the liquidized option, some prefer to be a little more inventive in the kitchen.
“IPEN don’t do it, but a friend of mine cooked it into a shepherds pie – she ate the whole placenta.”
So where does Cath think the future lies for this bloody beverage?
“Smoothies on the NHS. It should be offered to everyone as a kind of try it type of thing.”
Clearly for Cath, the future is bright for…placentas.
