Placenta Encapsulation

Restores valuable nutrients, facilitates healing, balances emotions, and helps prevent postpartum depression.

What Is It?

For thousands of years, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has viewed the placenta as a key medicinal ingredient that is invaluable for postpartum healing. Childbirth is a beautiful process; however, it can be very depleting and hard on the body.

New mothers often experience blood loss, fatigue, and a drop in their high pregnancy hormones; all of which are thought to be key factors in the development of the “baby blues” and postpartum depression. The placenta is full of essential nutrients and hormones— which will replenish the new mothers’ body, naturally, when it is needed most.

What Are the Benefits?

Placenta capsules can:

• promote a healthy milk supply
• significantly reduce postpartum bleeding
• aid in healing the mothers body
• replenish essential hormones; such as oxytocin
• replenish essential nutrients; such as iron and vitamin B6
• prevent the “baby blues”, fatigue, and postpartum depression

What is Different About Placenta Encapsulation at San Pedro Acupuncture Health Center?

Practitioners at the San Pedro Acupuncture Health Center have advanced training and hold a Masters degree in Chinese Medicine. They have a deep understanding of the complex chemical composition of herbs and how it plays a part in the organ systems and energetic systems of the body. They are skilled at creating custom herbal formulas according to a person’s constitution and particular needs at the time of treatment.

As licensed primary care practitioners in the State of California, we are held to a much higher standard in the preparation of herbal formulas and single herb preparation (placenta encapsulation is considered a single herb preparation) than those holding only a certificate in encapsulation. We are OSHA bloodborne pathogens and infection control trained. You can rest easy knowing that with the years of education and strict quality guidelines, you are receiving the highest quality preparation possible.

Major Known Components of the Placenta

• Prolactin: a hormone that stimulates milk production after childbirth
• Oxytocin: a hormone that causes increased contraction of the uterus during labor and stimulates the ejection of milk into the ducts of the breasts
• Thyroid-stimulating hormone: stimulates the thyroid gland to make 2 hormones that help control your body’s metabolism
• Cortisone: a hormone that relieves inflammation, pain, and swelling
• Interferon: a protein released in response to a virus and has the property of inhibiting virus replication
• Prostaglandins: a group of fatty acids with hormone-like effects, notably the promotion of uterine contractions
• Lysozyme: a hydrolyzing agent and immune system booster capable of destroying bacteria and viruses on contact
• Hemoglobin: the iron-containing substance in red blood cells that transports oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body
• Phosphorus: the second most profuse mineral in the body; it aids bone formation, digestion, protein formation, hormone balance, cell repair, chemical reactions, and nutrient utilization

How Does It Work?

If you plan to deliver in a hospital, you should notify your OB/GYN or midwife that you intend to take your placenta home with you. Most hospitals will ask that you sign a release form before giving you your placenta to take home.
After your baby is born someone should notify our office that the placenta is ready. If you are unable to deliver the placenta to our office within a few hours after delivery, then make sure it is refrigerated.

The actual preparation consists of rinsing the placenta, then steaming it in water. The process of steaming the placenta may be done with or without traditional herbs, depending on the presentation of the mother. The placenta is then dehydrated and ground into a powder form and then encapsulated for easy consumption.

We make sure that your placenta pills are ready for pick-up within 48 hours after we receive it. It is best to start taking your placenta as soon as possible after delivery.

Please call (310) 833-2557 or email (info@sanpedroacupuncture.com) our office to check if we are currently taking new encapsulation orders.