Yahoo Lifestyle 
New mum drinks placenta shake in hospital
Blogger and self-confessed "social media over sharer" Zoe Marshall, has joined a growing number of new mums consuming some or all of their placenta after giving birth.
Posting an Instagram image of herself taken in hospital after the birth of her first child, Zoe says, "This is me with my placenta in a shake".
Zoe and her NRL star husband Benji Marshall, welcomed their son Fox in February, and she writes that she had, "a small piece of fresh placenta blended with banana and berries and yes I drank it."
“Gotta have that fresh placenta. I also got Georgie [the other woman in the photo] to make me placenta capsules, a tincture and an essence to take post-natal.”
The trend has been on the rise since 2015, with a host of celebrities sharing how they decided to consume their own placenta. Pills, for example, were used by both Kim and Kourtney Kardashian.
Mad Men star January Jones and Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi are also both fans of the placenta pill.
While more and more mums have been following suit, some weren’t quite as convinced.
“Personally I feel the placenta is birthed out for a reason and wouldn’t put it back in my body,” one person commented on Zoe’s photo.
“I could not do this, I have a weak stomach as it is at the thought of eating placenta,” another responded.
Many however were very supportive and grateful she was sharing her decision to consume placenta.
“I can't believe everyone is grossed out by this! It’s not like the placenta has been thrown in a blender, it’s a tiny piece of placenta. There are so many benefits,” one mum commented.
“Good for you for consuming your placenta and talking about it. So many benefits,” another added.
Some of the nutritional benefits of consuming a placenta, according to Mother & Baby, include curbing baby blues and postnatal depression, increasing milk production, replenishing low levels of iron, and reducing postnatal bleeding.
It sounds plausible given that by the end of nine months of nourishing your baby, the placenta will be packed full of vitamins, including vitamin B6 - is known to help combat depression.
But some experts think it is more of a placebo effect, as there is not yet any scientific evidence to support the benefits.
“There is no scientific evidence at all for any of the supposed benefits of eating placenta, whether whole or in capsule form,’ Fiona Ford, dietitian for the British Dietetic Association, told Mother & Baby.
“The placenta is full of vitamins, but there’s no guarantee that – even though they’re in large amounts – they’re going to the right place and doing the right job.”
Just last week a mum in America made headlines for taking things a step further by turning her placenta into a smoothie and feeding it to her husband and son.
Mum-of-four Jay Woodall paid $42USD for her raw placenta to be turned into smoothies, and everything leftover was dehydrated and turned into pills – costing a further $210USD, reports the NY post.
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