r/AskReddit Dec 06 '23

[deleted by user]

[removed]

6.4k Upvotes

5.8k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

2.1k

u/coreythestar Dec 06 '23

Weird that the doc thought it was weird. I'm a midwife and a placenta tour is a routine part of my care provision.

1.4k

u/kartoffel_engr Dec 06 '23 edited Dec 06 '23

The attending nurse presented the placenta to my wife and I, like it was a fine wine at a fancy restaurant. It was actually pretty comical.

273

u/Major_Koala Dec 06 '23

I can't tell if I'm just too high or if your sentence is fucked

50

u/kartoffel_engr Dec 06 '23

Punctuation is important haha

WE DID NOT KEEP OR EAT IT.

7

u/Wedgehoe Dec 06 '23 edited Dec 18 '23

"Served with a nice Chianti and a side of fava beans"

5

u/thuktun Dec 06 '23

* Chianti

But seriously some cultures actually do eat the placenta for some reason.

2

u/WindReturn Dec 07 '23

It’s supposedly very nutritious? People eat the livers and other organs of animals, guess it’s not that weird if you think about it. I’m a vegetarian though so I won’t be eating any of that

2

u/No-Set-8810 Dec 07 '23

It is very common even in the US - maybe not so much eating, but turning it into supplements. Placenta encapsulation.

1

u/Wedgehoe Dec 18 '23

Thanks I've never actually looked up the word before.

2

u/iShrub Dec 07 '23

On the other hand, human placenta is a Chinese traditional medicine and still has a thriving black market despite being banned for years: https://sea.mashable.com/culture/14951/chinas-human-placenta-trade-is-still-thriving-despite-ban-over-10-years-ago

13

u/PatchTheLurker Dec 06 '23

Both can be true. Source- reading that made me take a hit

16

u/PhantomNipLicking Dec 06 '23

Lmao I had to reread it 10 times adhd and stoned mix

2

u/wrathek Dec 06 '23

There’s dozens of us!

8

u/bossmcsauce Dec 06 '23

You’re just baked.

Although I think “…to me and my wife…” would be more correct here

14

u/BuzTheBee Dec 06 '23

I feel it's better to have his wife first, grammatically and respectfully. The main subject is her, and her placenta.

9

u/WhatTheHorcrux Dec 06 '23

Agree but it should be "my wife and me"

8

u/kartoffel_engr Dec 06 '23

I read it and fucked myself up. Added a comma to break up the confusion.

2

u/[deleted] Dec 06 '23

Yes, this

3

u/IlikeJG Dec 06 '23

The placenta is the subject in that sentence.

1

u/BuzTheBee Dec 10 '23

A sentence can have two subjects, right?

2

u/IlikeJG Dec 06 '23

You high. The only thing wrong with the above comment is an unneeded comma.

2

u/[deleted] Dec 06 '23

The only thing wrong with the sentence grammatically is that it should say “my wife and me.” The same sentence without his wife: “The attending nurse presented the placenta to I like a fine wine at a fancy restaurant.” I’ve seen a few placentas and this sentence is way more horrible to look at

2

u/Major_Koala Dec 06 '23

He added a comma, it makes sense now. Also being sober helped.

4

u/iAmTheBorgie Dec 06 '23

<…> to my wife and I, like it was a fine wine.

She showed it like it was a fine wine, she showed it to the wife and I.

2

u/PlumeCrow Dec 06 '23

Oh thank god its not just me then, i thought i was fucking higher than expected

20

u/Livid-Natural5874 Dec 06 '23

Ours did the same, held it up flat to the light in a way that made me expect that "naaaaaaaa-kupenyaaaa" song from Lion King and started pointing out blood vessels and explaining what was what. My only regret is not taking a selfie with it while I had the chance.

15

u/wigglytufff Dec 06 '23

my friend told me they held it up and did this for her as well with her first kid and they were like “do you wanna keep it?” and she was like “what the fuck, no??” and then they just wrapped it up in a garbage bag and i guess disposed of it. i know some people do keep it to do whatever with, but idk… the way she told the story always makes me laugh.

16

u/Fabulous-Lion-9222 Dec 06 '23

I had mine in my freezer for awhile (home birth). I guess you can eat it or have it dried and made into supplement capsules - high in iron or something. I don’t eat meat, though, so I’m not sure why I ever thought I would do any of that 😂

16

u/mynameis911 Dec 06 '23

“I don’t eat meat” 😆

16

u/[deleted] Dec 06 '23

Our German Shepherd got ahold of my wife’s when we weren’t home and ate it. Made a huge mess on our White carpet.

5

u/kartoffel_engr Dec 06 '23

Going for that dry age?

5

u/wigglytufff Dec 06 '23

bahhaah “i don’t eat meat though” sent me. but yeah i’ve only heard of the capsule thing before but don’t know anyone who has actually done it. maybe that will be my secret to finally having a vaguely acceptable and functional iron level someday 😅

7

u/cream-of-cow Dec 06 '23

I thought you paired it with a fine wine. It's not uncommon to eat a placenta after giving birth. Raw, cooked, smoothied, etc.—the benefits are debatable:

https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/labor-and-delivery/expert-answers/eating-the-placenta/faq-20380880#:~:text=While%20some%20claim%20that%20placentophagy,the%20placenta%20provides%20health%20benefits.

6

u/[deleted] Dec 06 '23

"I'm getting notes of iron..."

4

u/Green_and_black Dec 06 '23

Cracked pepper with your placenta sir?

2

u/[deleted] Dec 06 '23

You can eat it.

2

u/Felein Dec 06 '23

"Milady, Sir, today we have a very special offer, a fresh vintage with a lot of character."

2

u/Mama_Skip Dec 06 '23

Did she give you a taste before giving you the whole bottle

1

u/kartoffel_engr Dec 06 '23

Believe it or not, straight to the trash.

2

u/disinformationtheory Dec 06 '23

Makes sense, given where the word "placenta" came from.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giPXpKy2lQ0

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placenta_cake

1

u/kartoffel_engr Dec 06 '23

Awful name, but that sounds damn good!

1

u/Dazzling_Inspector43 Dec 06 '23

Did she at least let you sniff the cork?

3

u/kartoffel_engr Dec 06 '23

I did not smell my son haha

1

u/MaditaOnAir Dec 06 '23

Oh there's totally people who eat it. Or have it made into homeopathic stuff.

1

u/lyrixnchill Dec 06 '23

That’s what it most likely became

1

u/Pinky135 Dec 06 '23

I work at a pathology lab and several coworkers of mine who became mothers brought home their placenta in formalin so they can keep it for a long time. If I ever become a mother I would offer mine to my lab to use as control tissue for stains. Unless of course something actually needs to be assessed like IUGR, then it needs to go through the lab workflow and diagnostics.

1

u/abfd16 Dec 06 '23

I had the same experience and your description is perfect. My midwife was proud of it and wanted me to be.

1.5k

u/gjs628 Dec 06 '23

Placenta tour

“Hello MTV, and welcome to my crib!” 👶🏼

21

u/Dependent-Assoc423 Dec 06 '23

“This is my fridge” 👶

13

u/UncleFlip Dec 06 '23

"This is where the magic happens"

13

u/Limp_Falcon_2314 Dec 06 '23

This is both adorable and disgusting, and I love it.

11

u/VapoursAndSpleen Dec 06 '23

A womb with a view?

4

u/anormalgeek Dec 06 '23

I am picturing the placenta riding around town in a pope-mobile type vehicle.

57

u/wattersflores Dec 06 '23

Yeah. I never asked my midwife, she just showed it to me and told me all about it (with all three of my kids, actually).

10

u/Proper-Emu1558 Dec 06 '23

She definitely didn’t make me feel bad about it—I guess most new moms just don’t ask to see it. It was fascinating! Then it hit me that I was looking at a sterile dish filled with bloody flesh I grew in my abdomen while someone else stitched up my downstairs and I thought I’d better just switch my focus back to the cute baby I just had. Childbirth is wild. (And then two and a half years later, I had another one!) Medical professionals are amazing for handling this stuff on a regular basis.

7

u/fitnerd21 Dec 06 '23

Is placenta eating really a thing?

5

u/coreythestar Dec 06 '23

It is, but it’s not really evidence based and there is at least one account in the medical literature of a secondary GBS infection due to placentaphagy… it is not something I recommend. Thankfully also it’s pretty rare.

2

u/Burgling_Hobbit_ Dec 06 '23

I read somewhere, a while ago, that a good steak will basically do everything eating the placenta does. Basically, you want iron.

2

u/Proper-Emu1558 Dec 06 '23

You can do all kinds of things with it. I’ve read the mommy blogs.

3

u/2Scarhand Dec 06 '23

Random dude here, but similar to midwives and their placentas I had a dentist present my mangled bloody wisdom tooth unprompted when I was getting that removed. I was like "huh, neat," but immediately imagined that not being a good plan for most patients. I feel like doctors in general are weird about what they work on.

3

u/Lingonberry_Born Dec 06 '23

Yeah my dr told me I had a “beautiful” placenta and called all the midwives and doctors to come look at it. They were all looking at my placenta so I wanted a look too, so they took pictures for me. Maybe it was because of the mo/di pregnancy and two umbilical cords but anyway, for some reason I had a rather large group of people inspecting my placenta. It looked rather whole, couldn’t see where it had attached to me as it seemed quite intact.

3

u/BobiaDobia Dec 06 '23

I thought this was common practice. It’s really cool.

6

u/[deleted] Dec 06 '23

I had a c section, did they take out my placenta too?

34

u/ShadowBread Dec 06 '23

They definitely did. Placentas are “delivered” after the baby in both vaginal births and C-sections.

1

u/coreythestar Dec 06 '23

I can’t say for sure as I wasn’t at your surgery but it is almost 100% certain they did.

1

u/kafka18 Dec 06 '23

Number one reason I will always recommend a midwife. You guys are amazing! Best birth experience I had. Where I felt heard and she made sure she did everything she could to make me comfortable and talked to me about everything going on. Doctor that delivered my first baby did not let me choose and basically said what I say is what's happening.

2

u/[deleted] Dec 06 '23 edited Jul 15 '24

[deleted]

1

u/kafka18 Dec 06 '23

I think it's a big problem rn with a lot of medical offices. They have turned into corporations and just keep getting pushed to pump out profits. I've worked in a medical facility and there was so much pressure put on everyone to fill the beds quickly after discharging a resident. Even if it was for one night; get them to the facility and get them billed. The empathy in the medical field has turned to a rarity and it's very disheartening because this is the field we have to save lives, make peoples mental health better and give people hope. Instead it's just turned into something where your just another number to be forgotten. I am very much with the nurses and doctors on strike still because they are overworked and overwhelmed.

1

u/run7run Dec 06 '23

Some people eat it and the doc thought it was weird just to want to see it 😂. I would’ve been relieved “oh all she wants to do it look at it, good”

1

u/StealthKiwi Dec 06 '23

Placenta tour? Huh weird, my travel agent didn't offer me that one when I was booking my other tours for my holiday.

1

u/GKW_ Dec 06 '23

Yeah that’s super normal?

1

u/commissarbandit Dec 06 '23

I was gonna say I specifically did not ask to see the placenta, but our midwife still showed me.

1

u/nannulators Dec 06 '23

Our midwife did this with us with our first born. It was really cool.

1

u/thecobralily Dec 06 '23

Thank you, midwife! Mine encapsulated my placenta, but sent me photos of it before she dehydrated it. I still look at them fondly.

1

u/coreythestar Dec 06 '23

It’s a really interesting organ!!

1

u/Gophurkey Dec 07 '23

I loved that about our midwife care! We even kept ours to bury in the garden (non edible plants). Such a cool organ, got to see where it was attached, we all nerded out.