All the Things You Can Do with Your Placenta

Clients ask me all the time what they might be able to do with their placenta, and are surprised to find that they have many options! I'll walk you through each option from the simplest to the most involved. Content Warning: photos of real placentas are included below.

The first thing you need to know is that in Illinois, and especially in the greater Chicago area, the precedent for the placenta belonging to you is already set. If you choose one of the options below that include taking your placenta from your birthing place, you will have to sign a form (at the hospital), but no one can stop you from taking it. That said, I've had some clients be told that the doctor "strongly recommends" that they send their placenta to the lab (aka "pathology") for further inspection.

For example, a client who had gestational diabetes was told that she shouldn't take her placenta. When she asked for a reason why, the doctor didn't really have one. So, she asked again if she could take it. The doctor said they wanted to send it to pathology "to look for any concerns related to baby that they might have missed." My client pressed again, now alarmed that something was wrong with her baby. The doctor just kept encouraging her to think it over before making a decision without giving a clear answer. That confused all of us.

Finally, she got a concrete answer: they wanted to check to see if they could find an explanation for my client's excess amniotic fluid. My client was an informed decision maker and knew that her gestational diabetes had caused her higher fluids, and that confirming that wasn't going to a have an impact on her baby or her baby's care. When she asked to talk to the doctor one more time, we were told that the doctor wasn't available and that now the doctor said it was totally fine to take her placenta home.

Bottom line: your placenta is yours to do whatever you want with.

All the Placenta Options

Leave the Placenta at the Birth Place for Disposal

Disposing of your placenta as biohazardous waste is the most common, default option for your placenta. It will most likely sit in a refrigerator in the hospital until it is incinerated in batches with other placentas.

Some of my clients are worried that the hospital will sell their placenta. In the U.S., it is illegal to sell any human organ, including the placenta.

Send Your Placenta to a Laboratory

Request a Placenta Tour

Have Placenta Art Made

Bury Your Placenta

Encapsulate Your Placenta

Have a Lotus Birth

No matter what you decide to do with your placenta, I hope you feel a sense of pride for growing the life support system that created and nurtured your baby for 9 months. Placentas are bloody organs, yes, but they are also the place of exchange between parent and infant during gestation. Please feel free to reach out if you have questions about your placenta and what you might do with it.