Oregon State study says it's OK to eat placenta

PORTLAND, Ore. - First, experts said eggs are bad for you, then they say it's OK to eat them. Is red wine good for your heart or will it give you breast cancer?

Should you eat your placenta?

Conflicting research about diets is nothing new, but applying the question to whether new mothers should ingest their placenta is.

A new study from Oregon State University says if you want to eat the bloody one-pound organ that connects your developing fetus to your body, go right ahead. The study is especially notable because it conflicts with the advice of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Doctors and scientists traced one newborn's recurring strep infection to the mother's placenta. The mother, an Oregon woman, had sent her placenta to a company that cleans, slices and dehydrates placentas and turns them into about 115 to 200 gel capsules. However, the capsules still had traces of strep, which were then passed to the baby through breast milk.

But the Oregon State and University of Nevada, Las Vegas researchers say one case is not indicative of the overall risk of eating placenta.

"Our findings were surprising given the recent guidelines recommending against placenta consumption as well as the known risks of consuming uncooked or undercooked meat," said the study's lead author, Daniel Benyshek, a professor of anthropology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. "These new findings give us little reason to caution against human maternal placentophagy out of fear of health risks to the baby."

They examined 23,000 birth records from a database of births led by midwives. The Midwives Alliance of North America Statistics Project tracks health outcomes for babies born primarily at home or in birthing centers.

The researchers found the one-third of women who ate their placenta had no worse health outcomes for the baby or themselves than the two-thirds who didn't.

The study also provided new information about who is most likely to ingest placenta: college-educated women of color in the Western and Rocky Mountain states who are having their first baby.

They likely chose to eat their placenta to ward off postpartum depression, a growing trend that has picked up steam as celebrities like Kim Kardashian West and January Jones did it.

Tens of thousands of women a year in the U.S. eat their placentas now, according to an earlier study from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. It's also become more popular in Europe and Australia.

Proponents say it boosts breast milk production, increases energy, improves moods and helps women quickly recover from birth. However, no scientific study has been able to corroborate these results.

Study co-author Melissa Cheyney, a licensed midwife, medical anthropologist and associate professor in Oregon State University, said this most recent study provides a jumping off point to look at those claims.

"The fact that so many new mothers are willing to engage in this practice speaks to the potentially debilitating nature of postpartum depression and the understandable desire to avoid it," Cheyney said.

She recommends women who want to eat their placenta properly clean and prepare it. Doctors and midwives should discuss the full range of treatment options for postpartum depression with new mothers, she said.