Friday, July 25, 2008

Save the Placenta!

So, last Saturday my husband and I went on a cute date to the hospital. No, it's not what you are thinking. Nothing was wrong. We were attending our first baby class: New Beginnings Family Birth Center Orientation!

Before going to the class we stopped at Perkins for breakfast. I had a craving for chocolate milk. I don't think I have had chocolate milk in over five years (I also haven't had Taco Bell in over five years but NEEDED it for lunch the other day!). The place was an icebox! Why do they make restaurants SO COLD?! I couldn't enjoy my meal :(

Anywho, things turned around when we pulled up to the hospital!!! It is so pretty, located in a very cute neighborhood. I love how I base my choice of where I am going to give birth to my child based on the looks! Even better....free valet parking!

Once we arrived at the classroom other new parents started arriving. There were probably about 20 couples at the class. I felt so young, but I am sure we were all in the 10 year age range. I know the maternity clothes out there are not the best looking, but you can still dress hip. Some of these girls looked like they were wearing my grandma's clothing!!! Personally, I like the site Mom4Life that I found in a free magazine that my doctor gave me (they even sell those crazy wraps that you baby-wearing moms are into). It is also so funny how pregnant women act....they all have that "pregnant stance" where they are slightly leaning back, legs spread, rubbing their bellies. I am sure I will act like that one of these days, but for now I just laugh and continue believe that I will NEVER act like that.

Once we sat down we were given a folder of information and the nurse began her talk. My husband and I had a little bit of ADD and chose to half-listen and talk about the other couples in the room. One couple looked like they were of Indian descent, but had a red haired man with them. Like, what the heck was going on there? Seemed like a personal coach or something...or maybe a sperm donor. They were the only couple that brought someone else along. I am still wondering. As you can tell, I am VERY nosy.

The nurse spoke about the other FREE classes the the hospital offers (Lamaze, breastfeeding, a grandparents class, c-sections, etc). I plan to sign up for all! Why not, they are free! What is there to lose? THEN she went into the procedure of what happens when you are in labor....fast forward....you deliver....."and if you want to bring the placenta home, you are more than welcome to!". WHATTT?!? Now, if you know my lovey dovey husband he began to make (fake) gagging sounds and pretends to throw up. Then we both bust out laughing. WHOOPS! WHO DOES THAT? Who acts like that AND who brings their placenta home? The nurse explained that some people do it for religious reasons. If you have a weak stomach please scroll past the following the I got from the site Placenta Benefits.info:

"Among the Chinese and Vietnamese, it is a customary practice to prepare the placenta for consumption by the mother. The placenta is thought to be rich in nutrients that the mother needs to recover more readily from childbirth. In Italy, women have been known to eat parts of the placenta to help with lactation. Hungarian women bite the placenta to expedite the completion of labor. And knowledgeable midwives in this country have their birth mothers take bites of raw placenta to help stop hemorrhaging, due to its beneficial oxytocin content. There are a variety of potential benefits to placentophagy. For one, the placenta contains vitamins and minerals that may help fight depression symptoms, such as vitamin B6. For another, the placenta is considered rich in iron and protein, which would be useful to women recovering from childbirth, and a particular benefit to vegetarian women."

Anyway, then we took the hospital tour. The nurse showed us where we come in, the triage where we wait to see if we will be admitted, a labor room, the nursery, the JACUZZI (yes, the place sounds like a 5-star hotel, huh?), and a room where the hubby can even stay the night! She also told us that after we deliver they give us a pair of Victoria's Secret underwear!!! My husband makes the comment, under his breath of course, that "of course his wife chooses a hospital with valet parking, a spa, and Victoria's Secret underwear!". HAHAH!

I don't remember much detail of what was said on the tour because I became very emotional. It was happy emotional though. I had to hold back my tears of joy! My husband told me later on that I was glowing all day! I am just SO excited and am loving this stage of pregnancy! (Forget that first trimester....morning sickness took over my life!) The little babes in the nursery were SO cute....so innocent, so tiny, so delicate. Everyone was so nice!

We went on to Babies R' Us to register, but that is a whole other post! Hope you have a wonderful weekend....I am off to a Tupperwear party tonight with my mom (who knew they even still had these.....maybe I'll find some good stuff), crib/furniture shopping and a 30th birthday party tomorrow, and dinner with the out-laws (whoops, did I write that?) on Sunday.

***Mommy-to-Be Stacie

11 comments:

Pam said...

I've heard of placenta saving, but didn't do it. No thanks- but that is just my personal opinion. I probably looked like I was wearing your grandmother's clothes when I was pregnant. We didn't have much money so I took hand me downs and cheap stuff. It was hard to look hip on the cheap budget. But I see you point.

Mommy-to-Be Stacie said...

I definately sound like a big snob on this post....sorry! Must be the pregnancy hormones!

Danielle said...

You might want to save those Vicky's undies for a later date---with all the yummy stuff happening down there after you give birth you might want some granny panties!

Anonymous said...

I got an even better placenta story...someone out in CA (i think) thinks it is very traumatic for the newborn to be seperated from the placenta before he/she is ready. A placenta bag is with the baby and they allow the placenta to essentially "fall off" when the time is right. They even went as far to say there other children were "traumatized" because of having the umbilical cord cut to soon and being seperated from the placenta.
Sorry if I offened anyone who believes in this practice.
But..seriously?

Mozi Esme said...

This had me laughing!

Those VS panties? My hospital gave me some diaper-like panties, and I think I appreciated them far more than VS - it took me a year to go shopping at VS again.

And that pregnancy stance? It drove me crazy to see women rub their tummies (can't they keep their hands off themselves?) - until I started doing it! Though I did try to keep it at a minimum and mostly in private . . .

Did that whole evaluation thing of others, too - counting up how many came with significant others versus moms etc. - who looked like they were having twins, etc. Though I looked older than everyone there - they must have all been like 15 or 16.

I must say the birthing classes I took were the best choice I made during the whole pregnancy time - they made a huge difference in how I handled labor & delivery.

Anonymous said...

That's just gross! I remember our hospital tour and I remember wanting to do all those mommy and baby classes once Kaelin was here, but being a new mom just consumed every waking moment and I never made a one of them!

Future Mom (Heather) said...

hey stacie-
i did a post a while ago about various things people do with their placentas! it might be funny to check it out if it's even possible to go back that far :)

also can you please let me know what hospital this is and if they maybe have a branch down here! It sounds like the four seasons or something. can you go there to just hang out & enjoy the facilities or do you actually have to have a baby LOL

also can't wait to check out your registry!!

your bloggy buddy
future mom
(make that the very distant future haha)

Pierrette said...

That is amazing that the hospital will let you bring it home if you wanted to. I know many hospitals wont and there are even women out there who have sued hospitals to get there placenta. The hospital we were at did not want to release the placenta; I had originally planned a home birth and we were going to plant the placenta in our back yard under a tree.

Missi said...

I knew someone that had her placenta ground into a powder so she could take it in pill form.

Your hospital sounds amazing! And I second the granny panties!

Anonymous said...

So thrilled that you enjoy my website;)! Congratulations on your pregnancy, I was AMAZED to read that info on the placenta! I have something else to add to the list of what you can do with placentas: My third son was born a litte over 2 months ago (stillbirth) and a friend told me that some mothers keep the placenta and put green paint on it and press it onto a piece of paper. The resulting "art work" looks very much like a tree that can be framed and hung in the home. I thought that because of my son's death this sounded like a really interesting but neat thing to do. Unfortunately, because we needed to send my placenta in for testing to try to find out the reason my son died I was unable to do that but I thought it was a unique idea nonetheless. Blessings to you, Heather

Tracy said...

I definately have heard of saving the placenta. Someone I know saved it and planted a tree over it in their yard (good fertilizer???). I took more of the I don't want to see ANYTHING approach. I never had the chance to have a natural birth but if I did I don't think I would have even wanted to watch that. With both c-sections I made sure the drape was up high enough so I wasn't seeing anything and both girls were nice and clean before they were brought to me! As for the undies my hospital called them Victoria's Secret but they were disposable fish net undies to hold the jumbo pads in place. Hope you get the real thing for later on!